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Written question asked by Ashok Kumar (Labour) on Tuesday, 31 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 2 February 2006. It was answered by Alun Michael (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 February 2006 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Nuisance Text Messages

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many complaints Ofcom has received regarding nuisance text messages sent by companies in the last 12 months.
Answer

Under Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, which came into force on 11 December 2003, the Information Commissioner's Office and not Ofcom has responsibility for the consideration of complaints relating to unsolicited marketing text messages. I am advised by his office that the following complaints were received in relation to Regulation 22, which covers unsolicited marketing text messages going back to the introduction of the present casework management system in 2004, although due to the nature of the casework management system previously used by his office figures are not available before this date:

Number of complaints
2004 931
2005 479
2006 16
(2) To date.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
442 c1074W;442 c1074W; 48381
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Complaints Direct marketing Text messaging
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk