Evans went on to say that the ICO is engaging with organisations that are working to "sensible timelines" to achieve compliance. When Computerworld UK asked what the ICO considered a "sensible timeline", Evans conceded that this could be a number of years.

"Some of the timescales don't match the May 2011 to May 2012 deadline. We recognise that some of the people we speak to don't have web development cycles that start just because the ICO has set a deadline," said Evans.

"But, where we have seen businesses with practical examples of compliance, working to sensible timescales, we are perfectly happy to leave them to it."

Deputy Commissioner David Smith was quick to respond to this by saying that he didn't believe an organisation saying it would be compliant in "five or six years" was a sensible timeframe, but did also concede that it was "very hard to say" and that it "depended on the nature of the site".

Both Smith and Evans highlighted that some organisations have thousands of cookies and have multiple domains, which is why it would take them so long to get a solution in place. However, they also insisted that companies should be carrying out tasks now to work towards compliance.