ICO Still Failing to Collect Fines from Unlawful Companies

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is struggling to collect the monetary fines it issues, effectively allowing companies in breach of the law off the hook, according to new Freedom of Information (FOI) data.

API company The SMS Works has been tracking the progress of the UK’s privacy and information rights regulator since 2018. Last year it revealed that, since 2015, around £7 million, or 42% of the monetary total, remained unpaid.

The latest findings reveal that the ICO has only managed to collect one more of the 47 outstanding fines issued up to July 2019 — related to Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. This means £6.6 million, or over 39% of total fines, are still outstanding.

What’s more, the regulator hasn’t been much good at collecting more recent fines, despite telling The SMS Works last year that it would be stepping up its efforts with the help of debt collection agencies.

Of the 21 fines handed out between Jan 2019 and August 2020, only nine have been paid, the FOI data revealed. That means 68% of the monetary value of fines issued during this time remains outstanding.

Of these, the ICO does best at collecting data breach fines, managing to bring in money for 54% during the period. However, just 13% of nuisance call fines were collected.

The ICO should also have benefitted from a long-awaited change in the law which made company directors responsible for paying fines. Previously, many would simply declare bankruptcy to avoid the fine, and start a new company.

However, t ..

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