ICO Calls on Accountants to Improve SME Data Protection

The UK’s privacy regulator has identified as on accountants to enjoy a essential job in making sure the country’s SMEs are compliant with arduous knowledge defense legislation.

The Info Commissioner’s Business office (ICO) claimed that investigate from 2021 uncovered that all-around a 3rd (34%) of lesser companies belief their accountants for guidance, when a fifth (20%) use these firms to retain abreast of developments in data protection and the GDPR.

It’s unclear what measurement of firm qualifies as an SME, in accordance to the ICO.

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The regulator published a collection of queries for accountants to inquire of their SME consumers in order to greatly enhance compliance across the compact business enterprise neighborhood:

• How substantially does your consumer know about information security compliance and the ICO?
• What styles of particular info do they gather on a every day basis?
• Why are they holding this details?
• What security actions do they have in location to secure this facts?
• Do they have a customer and employee-dealing with privacy detect?
• Do they know what a topic obtain ask for (SAR) is?
• Would they know what to do if their business suffers a breach?

“SMEs have a great deal to believe about when working a small business and it is all-natural that they depend on their experienced network for direction as they glimpse to expand their business enterprise. Accountants are a key portion of this network and it’s obvious from our engagement with SMEs that lots of of them are reliant on their accountant to ensure their organization dealings are compliant with details security rules,” argued ICO head of business solutions, Faye Spencer.

“We’re encouraging accountants throughout the UK to understand the role they enjoy and the price that they can add when it comes to giving peace of head to clientele managing their individual businesses.”

The lengthy-expression plan for the ICO is to assist SMEs self-assess their compliance with data protection legal guidelines by way of a new SME Info Essentials plan. It is now piloting the scheme with 60 SMEs as portion of a 3-year ICO25 plan to lessen compliance expenditures whilst empowering SMEs to innovate and mature.