The Fundraising Standards Board has revealed that its upcoming annual complaints report will likely show an increase in telephone fundraising complaints over last year as Trading Standards issues its first fine for a breach of the Telephone Preference Service.
The £36,000 fine issued by Dorset County Council Trading Standards Service against Apple Group Holdings, a home improvements company, for repeated ‘nuisance’ calls to the vulnerable and elderly is the first of its kind by a Trading Standards body.
It is typically the Information Commissioner’s Office which issues fines against TPS breaches, and so the intervention of Trading Standards sets a precedent which means that organisations which use telephone marketing could be subject to fines from multiple regulators.
More than 19 million of the 24.4 million homes with a landline in the UK are registered on the TPS, and Colin Lloyd, chair of both the TPS and Fundraising Standards Board, said that the number of mobile registrations has also increased over recent years. Complaints about TPS violations have increased over the years, he said, and number in the thousands per month.
Lloyd told civilsociety.co.uk that while the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2010 indicated that it views charities more leniently than telemarketers from window-glazers or PPI products, this is likely to change if the ICO spots an increase in complaints about the charity sector in particular.
This, however, is precisely what appears to be happening. Last year’s FRSB annual fundraising complaints report showed a significant spike in complaints about telephone fundraising, and Lloyd said figures he has seen for the 2013 report, which will not be released until June, show another increase in complaints about fundraising via telephone.
While the figures are not yet finalised, Lloyd said he did not believe telephone fundraising had reached any kind of critical point. “I think we’re probably OK,” he said.
“The message to the sector is to be diligent and careful about who you are calling.
“There are the Institute of Fundraising’s Codes of Practice. Please follow them – if you don’t it’s not just the FRSB which will be paying attention, but also the ICO and now Trading Standards.”
