The Information Commissioner has named the eight major charities that were contacted in 2014 to remind them of the Telephone Preference Service rules, in his written evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

In his written evidence, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said that his office sent out a “standard letter” in March 2014 to “approximately 500 organisations who had attracted some, but not many, complaints to the TPS during 2013”.

Of these he explicitly named eight charities: Christian Aid, British Heart Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, NSPCC, Barnardo’s, Oxfam and the British Red Cross.

Graham said that the letter “was part of a general education and awareness-raising campaign intended to remind organisations of their responsibilities when undertaking direct marketing activities”.

The letter also made clear that the ICO had “the potential for imposing a monetary penalty” on charities for making “unsolicited marketing calls to large numbers of individuals” and asked all the organisations to “confirm receipt of this letter” within 14 days of receiving it.

Graham originally gave evidence in person to the PACAC inquiry in October 2015. At the time, he said that the ICO was “concerned about some of the big charities ignoring the Telephone Preference Service” and said he had written to eight major charities in March 2014, but did not specify which those were.

He also added that big charities were aware that the “Telephone Preference Service could not be overwritten without prior consent”.

Charities had claimed that they believed that the ICO did not intend to apply the TPS law to charities, so long as they received no complaints.

A spokeswoman for the NSPCC said: "We are continuing to work with the ICO and assessing how the changes to regulations affect our fundraising activity." 

The other named charities have been contacted by Civil Society News for a response.