In an era when data privacy has become a political issue, the ICO has come under increasing fire over its handling of a range of often complex issues. Some of this might be justified and some of it might just point to the sheer scale of the ICO's job.

Earlier this week, the ICO was criticised by security company Barracuda Networks for reporting on the issue of unwanted marketing via phone calls and email without mentioning abuse of social media. The defence could be that the ICO's figures reflect what members of the public actually complain about.

More contentiously, there have been longstanding grumbles about the effectiveness of the ICO's regime of fines for organisations found to have breached the Data Protection Act. The ICO projects itself as levying tough fines while critics feel the organisation's 'get tough' stance still lacks teeth.