Accounting firms face data protection crackdown

Thousands of accounting firms face fines of up to £5,000 as part of a new crackdown by the UK's data protection watchdog.

The Information Commission is set to launch an awareness campaign after research found that half of the UK's 20,000 accounting firms are potentially in breach of data protection laws by failing to register that they process confidential customer information on their IT systems.

Phil Jones, assistant information commissioner, told silicon.com: "It would seem to us likely that most of them would need to notify us they are processing customer data."

Initially the campaign will take a soft approach by raising awareness through the main UK accounting bodies of the need for businesses processing personal data to register with the Information Commission.

But Jones warned that the Information Commission will use its full powers to enforce data protection laws on any accounting firms who ignore the advice.

"Once we have given them a chance, then, at that stage it stops being softly softly and we will not hesitate to prosecute," he said.

In a separate announcement, the Information Commission has promoted David Smith to the post of deputy commissioner with lead responsibility for data protection issues.

Smith will take over from retiring deputy commissioner Francis Aldhouse at the end of the year, and will be charged with promoting good practice, developing data protection policy at national and international levels and proposals for new legislation.