59 charities referred to the Information Commissioner

The FR has referred 59 charities to the Information Commissioner for ignoring suppression requests made through the Fundraising Preference Service.  When an individual asks for a charity to stop communication with them, an email is sent to the charity’s nominated contact, asking them to log into the FPS system within 28 days (since 1 March it is now 21 days).

The FR says that the charities are in breach of the Code of Fundraising Practice and the Information Commissioner has confirmed that it may consider failure to act on a FPS request as a potential breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. These charities have also been referred to the Charity Commission. The key point here is to ensure that your charity’s contact person listed on the Charity Commission’s Register of Charities is up to date and that you have a protocol in place for how to deal with suppression requests within the (now shortened) time frame.