ICO Fines £370,000 for Nuisance Calls Targeting Elderly People — What It Means for Care Homes

Created: 2026-07-13 · Last updated: 2026-07-13

The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fined two home improvement companies a combined £370,000 in July 2026 for making hundreds of thousands of marketing calls to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) — including calls that left elderly and disabled people "distressed and frightened." Thermotech Wall & Loft Surveys received a £240,000 fine after making 575,000 calls to TPS-registered numbers over six months using robo-call software operated from overseas call centres. Jacksons Marketing was fined £130,000 for related conduct. For UK care homes, the enforcement action makes a point many managers have already learned the hard way: TPS registration does not stop determined callers, and the people living in their care are among those most commonly targeted.

Who persistent callers target

The ICO complaint cited in the Thermotech enforcement notice described "a disabled older woman" left frightened by the volume and nature of the calls. In a separate case, the ICO fined a third company £100,000 after finding it had deliberately targeted people over 60 in what the ICO described as "predatory" calls.

The pattern is consistent across ICO enforcement actions: persistent nuisance callers disproportionately target older adults. For care homes, that is the population they house.

Why TPS registration is not a reliable barrier

Registration with the TPS prohibits unsolicited marketing calls to opted-out numbers under PECR. Thermotech made 575,000 calls to TPS-registered numbers in a single six-month period using software designed to place calls at scale. The fine came months after the calls. The calls came first.

Under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 — in force since February 2026 — PECR fines are now aligned with UK GDPR: up to £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover. Fines are substantially larger than before. Enforcement remains retrospective. For a care home resident whose number rings, that distinction matters very little.

What your call log can tell you

Most care homes receive calls that no member of staff answers, because the phone rings during medication rounds, mealtimes, or personal care. These calls go unrecorded. There is no way to know whether a number has called five times this week, or once.

CareTime's Silent Guard logs and screens every call coming into your care home and delivers a daily Morning Brief — a timestamped record of call activity from the previous day. If a number appears repeatedly without connecting, the pattern shows up in the Brief. If a number is already known to be a nuisance caller, it is screened before it reaches your team.

The Brief also provides a dated safeguarding record. If a resident's family raises concerns about repeated calls their relative received, you have evidence of what came in and when.

The questions worth asking about your phone lines

The July 2026 ICO enforcement makes it easier to answer one part of the question — yes, companies do target elderly and vulnerable people at scale, even on TPS-registered numbers. The harder question is specific to your home:

• How many calls came in this month that nobody answered?
• Which numbers have called more than once without connecting?
• If a resident raised a concern about repeated calls, would you be able to investigate?

If those questions don't have answers, the information isn't being recorded anywhere.

FAQ

Does registering a care home's phone number with TPS stop nuisance calls?

Registering business lines with the Corporate TPS (CTPS) is worth doing — it creates legal grounds for complaints and ICO action. However, as the July 2026 enforcement action confirms, determined callers continue to place calls to TPS-registered numbers at scale. Registration creates a right to complain after the fact; it does not prevent calls from being placed.

What is Silent Guard?

Silent Guard is CareTime's AI call monitoring service. It logs every incoming call, screens numbers already flagged as nuisance or sales callers, and delivers a daily Morning Brief summarising call activity. It is designed specifically for UK care homes. See how it works.

Does Silent Guard stop all nuisance calls?

No. Silent Guard screens numbers that are already known to be nuisance callers. Unknown numbers still ring through as normal until they are identified. The Morning Brief gives you a record of what reached your care home, which is the foundation for any investigation or safeguarding report.

If you'd like to see what your care home's call data looks like, the 30-Day Silent Guard Pilot gives you a full month of call monitoring with no hardware changes and no disruption to your team.