Age International, the international arm of Age UK, has signed an undertaking with the Information Commissioner’s Office to move to an opt-in consent model for telephone fundraising in the next 12 months.

The undertaking was signed last Thursday by Chris Roles, managing director of Age International, and by Stephen Eckersley, head of enforcement for the ICO. It commits Age International to a set of rules that requires it to gather “fresh specific and informed consent from the individual” once the two-year consent period has expired.

The organisation has pledged to “implement an ‘opt-in’ consent model” for all its telephone marketing within 12 months. The document defined the “opt-in” model as “consent given by a clear affirmative action establishing a freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of an individual’s agreement to personal data relating to them being processed in this way”.

According to the undertakings document, the charity was contacted by the ICO after it was named in an article by the Daily Mail on 7 July 2015. Age International is the second charity to publish such an undertaking with the ICO, after the British Red Cross announced in February that it had signed an opt-in agreement.

Other charities, including RNLI and Cancer Research UK, have committed to a move to the opt-in model.

A spokeswoman for Age International said: "Age International has signed up to the Information Commissioner’s Office voluntary agreement on Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations in telephone fundraising. 

"This is a voluntary code and one that has additional agreements over and above that required by existing regulation. The ICO confirmed that Age International has fully complied with all telephone fundraising regulation. However, we see this undertaking as an opportunity to go beyond the current law and regulation and to make a further commitment.”