According to the news, it was reported that many companies continue to decline the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) audits. The ICO are offering free audits to the companies so that they can help the firms to improve the way of handling personal and confidential data but until now, only a few companies have accepted this offer.

In a report, it was observed that the ICO has investigated 603 data breaches from last year, with the public sector accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total toll. Local government has reported with 146 breaches whereas central government with only 32 breaches and public sector with 45 breaches only. The finance and telecommunications sectors came up with a positive response.

It was reported that in the public sector, only 71% took up the offer and from which, 19% of private companies agreed for the audits. It was also observed that the NHS was the biggest offender in the public sector for accounting for about 165 breaches.

The report said: “All the organizations who have provided feedback agreed our recommendations were constructive and addressed key risk areas. Nearly 90% of them also said the process had raised awareness of the importance of data protection within their organization.”