The Daily Mail has claimed that fundraisers targeted individuals with dementia and used a loophole to try to dodge Telephone Preference Service rules after an investigation into agency GoGen.

The investigation has prompted the Information Commissioner’s Office to open an investigation into breaches of the Data Protection Act, and led the minister for civil society to call for “immoral practices” to be “stamped out”.

The report has led the Fundraising Standards Board and the Institute of Fundraising to convene a summit to address concerns about telephone fundraising.

An article in today’s newspaper details the findings of a three-week undercover investigation at GoGen, which raises money for 40 charities including Oxfam, NSPCC, Macmillan Cancer Support and the British Red Cross.

It found that fundraisers used a small-print loophole which they said allow them to phone people who had signed up to the Telephone Preference Service. 

This morning GoGen’s directors issued a statement refuting the allegations in the newspaper. A number of charities have also issued responses saying that they will investigate but believe they are complying with current rules.

The Mail also alleges that fundraisers were told to press people who have revealed that they have dementia or memory problems. It singled out the Red Cross for holding on to supporter data for three years after someone has stopped giving.

In a statement the ICO said: “We’re aware of allegations raised against several charities, and will be investigating whether there have been any breaches of the Data Protection Act or Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations.”

Rob Wilson, the minister for civil society, said: “The evidence is mounting that totally unacceptable practices are taking place by fundraisers. These allegations need to be investigated thoroughly by the regulators and charities should be ensuring that these immoral practices are stamped out for good.”

Consumer group Which? has called for the government to review fundraising rules. Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which?, said: “It's totally unacceptable if fundraising charities are using unlawful and immoral practices to raise money. The Government must now carry out a full review of fundraising rules and regulations to put an end to this and save the sector’s reputation.  

“We expect all those fundraising to immediately ensure they’re complying with the law and we urge them to implement the recommendations from the official nuisance calls and texts task force chaired by Which?."

Statement from GoGen: ‘we are considering legal action against the Mail’

This morning two of the directors at GoGen, Bob Metrebian and Giuseppe Iantosca issued a joint statement refuting many of the allegations in the Mail’s article and said they are considering legal action.

However the company has suspended two members of staff and agreed to allow the FRSB to conduct an investigation.

“We would like to state for the record that we refute many of the allegations made in the article and will be taking legal advice regarding our position as well as contacting the Independent Press Supervisory Organisation with a view to making a complaint that the Daily Mail have breached Clause 1 of the Editor’s Code,” the statement said.

It also said that the company fully complies with the Data Protection Act and Telephone Preference Service rules.

“At no time do we make calls to any TPS registered supporter without the full support and permission of the charity in question," the statement said. "We also do not make cold calls of any kind to TPS registered data supplied by third parties generated by lifestyle or profiled survey questionnaires.”

The statement said that the members of staff filmed by the Mail were juniors and that two members of staff have been suspended. It will also review its promotion criteria and the training for supervisory staff.

“We would like to make it clear that our intention is always to deliver first rate calling that shows the appropriate levels of respect to both the people we call and the charities we represent and we believe that we maintain these standards to a very high degree,” the statement said.

Responses from charities

In a statement the British Red Cross described the behaviour shown in the Mail’s undercover filming as “unacceptable” and said it would launch a full investigation.

“We put significant amounts of time into ensuring that people who fundraise on our behalf are appropriately trained to ensure they meet our very high standards and we expect them to be ambassadors for the Red Cross," the charity said.

"We are committed to ensuring we treat all our supporters sensitively and respectfully at all times, taking special care to protect vulnerable people and we never knowingly ask for donations from someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s.”

The Red Cross called for the ICO and the FRSB to review guidance for charities about complying with the Telephone Preference Service.

It added that in 2015 it expected to contact 700,000 supporters by telephone and that this would lead to 90,000 starting or increasing a regular gift, which is worth £4.5m to the charity over the year.

The statement added: “The telephone is also a cost-effective and successful way of raising funds in emergencies. For South Sudan, around half of the total amount raised for the appeal was through the telephone and for Syria we raised close to £600,000 in this way.”

Tim Hunter, director of fundraising at Oxfam, said: “Any potential supporters of the Engage Campaign who are on the Telephone Preference Service are only contacted if they have given us their explicit consent.

“At this time there is no primary evidence to suggest this is not the case, however following these allegations we temporarily suspended all telephone fundraising activity to ensure companies who work on our behalf meet not only the regulatory standards but also our own high moral and ethical standards.”

Oxfam had already suspended its work with Listen Ltd following another newspaper undercover investigation.

A spokesman for NSPCC said: “We have clear contractual arrangements in place with those that fundraise on our behalf, including strict guidance on vulnerable people, and expect the highest standards of behaviour from everyone who operates under the NSPCC banner.

“We regularly review the companies we use and will take breaches of those standards extremely seriously. We act in accordance with ICO guidance and data regulations and would never allow companies to engage in fundraising on our behalf that did not absolutely adhere to data protection rules. Any suggestion of inappropriate activity is deeply worrying and we would always want any concerns to be raised with us immediately so that they can be quickly addressed.”

In a statement Macmillan Cancer Support said: "We do not wish to contact people if we are aware this is unwanted. We take the requests of our supporters very seriously and all supporters can choose to unsubscribe from communications at any time. We would not hesitate to take robust action if we found our agencies were not acting with utmost integrity on our behalf.

“Macmillan is a proud member of the Institute of Fundraising and robustly adheres to its code of practice. We take the claims made by the Daily Mail extremely seriously and are looking into these as a priority."

FRSB and IoF to hold telephone summit to review current practices

The Fundraising Standards Board and the Institute of Fundraising have said that they will hold a summit to respond to the concerns about telephone fundraising that have been raised in recent weeks.

It will be held within the next few weeks and cover current practices, compliance with the Code of Fundraising Practices, TPS requirements and ICO guidance.

Alistair McLean, chief executive of the FRSB, said: “The recent allegations about telephone fundraising practices are of grave concern to us. We will be working with the Institute of Fundraising, ICO and Telephone Preference Service to ensure that the charities and agencies are in no doubt about what is required of them with respect to TPS regulations.”

Peter Lewis, chief executive of the IoF, added: “We welcome this opportunity to work with others to ensure that we get absolute clarity on telephone fundraising and the requirements of TPS to inform our review of the Code of Practice.”