The ICO's work to recover fines

We have a robust but fair approach when recovering fines, providing payment plans where debtors are in genuine financial hardship. However, where we identify organisations that can pay but won’t pay, we will pursue formal recovery action which can result in insolvency. Equally, where directors seek to avoid payment via insolvency we actively exercise our full rights as a creditor, including nominating Insolvency Practitioners whose investigations can result in personal claims against directors.

Formal debt recovery via insolvency can be complex and take several years to conclude so whilst it may appear that no money has been recovered, action is still actually ongoing and we will update our website when we receive dividends (payments).

We also work closely with other enforcement agencies to disrupt and obstruct seriously non-compliant directors who for example, may persist in continuing to make nuisance calls or send unsolicited spam despite our fine. This can result in directors being disqualified and further civil action or criminal prosecutions.

• Civil monetary penalties
• Court orders for winding-up upon ICO petitions
• Director disqualifications

Civil monetary penalties

We issued 11 final civil monetary penalties in Q4 of 2020/21, totalling £1,190,000.

Court orders for winding-up upon ICO petitions

There was 1 court order for winding-up upon ICO petitions in Q4 of 2020/21.

Director disqualifications

There were 0 directors disqualified following ICO enforcement action in Q4 of 2020/21. We continue to refer cases and support Insolvency Service investigations.