Government, regulators, consumer groups and industry have come together for the first time to tackle nuisance calls.

There were 120,310 such calls reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), between April and November 2013. Although fines totalling £2.54m have been handed out since January 2012, with rogue companies named and shamed on the ICOs website, a recent campaign by Which? that gathered 110,000 supporters has called for even greater powers.

As part of the Action Plan, the Government has launched a consultation into lowering the threshold for when fines can be imposed, which currently stands at ‘substantial damage’ or ‘substantial distress’.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has also unveiled plans to impose fines up to 20 per cent of annual turnover for offences including using information gathered by unsolicited calls and texts, providing bad services or wasting time and money. This will mean fines that could run into the millions in some cases.

The Direct Marketing Association has welcomed the move. “The Government’s action plan is a welcome warning to the rogue companies responsible for the nuisance calls that cause misery for millions of people and severely damage the legitimate telemarketing industry,” said Mike Lordan, chief of operations. “As the industry’s representative, the DMA will play a leading role in implementing the Action Plan. This will not only benefit people at home, but also the tens of thousands businesses that lawfully use telemarketing to win new customers and drive sales.”

Ofcom, the ICO and the Insolvency Service will also work more closely together to share information about bad practice.