Taylor Vinters - Solicitors

One fifth of small businesses may have breached the Data Protection Act (DPA) - and many may not even know it, according to the BSI British Standards.

A survey of over 500 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) revealed that 18 per cent are not sure whether they have committed data breaches or not.

More worryingly, nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of businesses polled provided no data protection training to their staff, while half admitted they have no single person responsible for protecting data.

Mike Low, director of standards at the BSI, warned that many SMEs have a "long way to go" with data protection.

"A third of businesses we surveyed stated that the complexity of the legislation restricts their compliance with the DPA," he added.

Chairman of the Data Protection Forum Gordon Wanless claimed that the BSI survey highlighted what was already known - "that many organisations find the legislation in this area complex".

It was a view echoed by Taylor Vinters' Guy Wheeler, who commented: "Our experience is that clients do find this a complex area and many are trying to improve compliance now the Information Commissioner's Office is taking a more proactive line on enforcement.

"I suspect the non-compliance level is in fact much higher than suggested in the article because data protection issues permeate all businesses, HR, IT, Accounts, Marketing databases etc. but businesses often only address data protection in one area from a compliance point of view."

For more information contact Guy Wheeler, 01223 225289.