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In total, 99 data breaches were reported to Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, in the three months to the end of December.

This compares with 277 data breaches in the 12 months to the end of October. One third of the new breaches - 32 were by private companies.

Commercial firms were responsible for 112 of the 376 breaches of the Data Protection Act last year.

In June last year, Virgin Media lost a CD containing private information on more than 3,000 customers.

Last week Thomas told MPs it was "unacceptable" that private companies could not be investigated by the ICO without their permission.

There has been a sharp rise in the amount of breaches of the Data Protection Act by commercial firms amid fears that database owners are paying less attention to data security as the downturn bites.

These latest figures and Thomas' remarks will undoubtedly hit home with direct marketers who have consoled themselves that recent data breaches were committed by public sector organisations, the most high profile being the loss of the Child Benefit database by the HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue Commissioners) in November 2007.

The assistant commissioner, Jonathan Bamford, said that private sector CEOs "need to ensure that their organisations are minimising the amount of personal information that is collected...As more and more information is being collected about us there are significant risks that our personal details are kept for longer than needed, become out of date or fall into the wrong hands."

Thomas retires from the ICO next June but has consistently criticised his office's lack of enforcement power against both commercial and public sector organisations.

"For more than 20 years, my office has not had the power to carry out any inspection without the consent of the organisation concerned," Thomas said. "In the six and a half years that I have been commissioner, I have strenuously argued that that is not acceptable. One would not expect a food inspector to have to get the restaurant's consent before carrying out an inspection."

MPs are currently drafting new legislation allowing the ICO to investigate government departments without their permission. But private companies are exempt under the proposals.