The government was forced to revise the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which came into force in the UK on 26 May last year, to address a new EU directive that demands that businesses and organisations running websites in the UK need to get consent from visitors to their websites in order to store cookies on users' computers.

However, the that it would give businesses a twelve month 'moratorium' period in which to get their house in order and to comply with the new regulation.

Despite the ICO's warning, and the one year breathing space, it has now said that it would be happy if some complex organisations take years to comply, if they can show that they are working towards compliance.

"We have seen a lot of attempts at good practice over the past 12 months, but what we haven't seen is people launching these on their websites," said David Evans, senior policy manager at the ICO.

"But we know that these things take time and we are sensible enough to know that this is not just a matter of switching things on. It takes time."