Poll: Are the punishments for nuisance calling firms sufficient?
New laws that make it easier to punish companies wwhich make nuisance calls and texts will "make a difference", the privacy watchdog has said. But do they go far enough?
From now on the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will just have to prove that a company has committed a serious breach of the law in order to issue a fine.
Previously it had to prove that those responsible for nuisance calls or spam texts had caused "substantial damage or substantial distress" - which the ICO said was "not easy for us to do".
Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said: "We've been pushing for this change for two years, and we're sure it will make a difference.
"The change will help us to make more fines stick, and more fines should prove a real deterrent to the people making these calls."
But he added: "We can only fine companies that we can prove committed serious breaches of the law after the rules changed, so we can't fine companies for something they did last week.
