Crackdown on cold calling

Companies that blitz households with telephone calls and spam text messages face heavy fines of up to 20 per cent their annual turnover.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) received 120,310 complaints about unsolicited marketing calls between April and November last year.

Currently nuisance calls must cause 'substantial stress' or 'substantial damage' for the ICO to impose sanctions.

The new rules are expected to lower the threshold required for the ICO to take action against companies that blitz households with telephone calls and spam text messages.