Hi

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has produce a range of detailed guidance and resources to assist businesses to conduct their direct marketing activities lawfully.

The guidance sets out what businesses need to know to make sure that any direct marketing which they undertake is lawful.  The law is contained the both the UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (as amended) (PECR). 

The new guidance includes: 

• Step-by-step general direct marketing guidance.
• A guide to PECR and training resources.
• Separate sets of direct marketing guidance specifically written for small businesses, and in relation to B2B marketing 
• A direct marketing checklist, a set of FAQs and a table of methods for sending direct marketing which also summarises Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) requirements and guides users towards choosing the right lawful basis for processing personal data.

The ICO says "Whilst obviously this is designed to help business fulfil their legal obligations ... it’s also hoped it will reduce the ICO's enforcement burden by empowering organisations through information, and leave those who fail to take advantage of the guidance vulnerable to more targeted and proportionate enforcement action. 

The guidance is both helpful and quite detailed, in particular in relation to the PECR which has caused some confusion for businesses in the past.

If you are involved in direct marketing activities - which means pretty much every entrepreneurial business - I recommend reading these guidelines and updating your  data protection policies and procedures.

Noel Guilford