The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data watchdog, received a 60% rise in reports of nuisance calls, texts and emails in the first six months of 2021 compared to 2020.

This is according to official figures analysed by legal firm Griffin Law. In the first half of 2021, the ICO recorded an average of 13,925 reports of nuisance calls, texts and emails each month.

This is compared to 8,680 per month throughout the whole of 2020. The disparity was even...