Businesses lending money were responsible for one in eight complaints to the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, according to his annual report.

Two-thirds of the total of 23,000 written complaints handled by the organsation over the past 12 months concerned subject access, inaccurate data, unwanted phone calls and disclosure of personal data. There were also 115,000 phone enquiries.

Stephen Sklaroff, Finance & Leasing Association director general designate, said: “The credit industry takes its data protection responsibilities very seriously, and has robust controls in place preventing misuse of personal data. We will keep these under review in light of the report.”