Financial institutions have just weeks left to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act (1998). Many UK businesses, however, are unprepared or do not even understand what this means, and many do not even know when the deadline is, according to a study by Tarlo Lyons, the City of London technology law firm and the Opus Group, a research agency.

Nearly two thirds of businesses in the UK are unaware of any deadline for the implementation of the final provisions of the Act and only 28% of the companies polled for the study knew that the deadline is this month.