According to a new study, the new stricter guidelines implemented by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) are not proving to be very effective in avoiding data loss by councils in the UK.

UK councils are loosing data more than 1,000 times each year even after the ICO implemented newer guidelines, according to the study conducted by the organization Big Brother Watch.

The study found that 132 councils in the UK had admitted to 1,035 occurrences of loosing data between 2008 and 2011. Out of these, there were only nine instances when the staff responsible for loosing data was punished.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch said, "This research highlights a shockingly lax attitude to protecting confidential information across nearly a third of councils. The fact that only a tiny fraction of staff have been dismissed brings into question how seriously managers take protecting the privacy of their service users and local residents."

The researchers also found that during the three years, councils had lost 244 laptops, 98 memory sticks and 93 mobile devices. On the other hand, 263 councils said that they did not loose nay data at all. Out of the total of 1,035 instances of data loss, only 55 cases were reported to the Information Commissioner's Office.