The government's information commissioner has called for the courts to impose harsher penalties on businesses that ignore data protection regulations, and he is taking steps to make compliance with the law more straightforward.

Delivering his annual report last week, information commissioner Richard Thomas said he wanted courts to impose greater punishments for deliberate breaches of data protection laws. "I'd like to see stronger penalties," Thomas said. "The courts have the powers." In the last year, the highest fine imposed by the courts was £3,000 in a case involving the London Borough of Islington.

The Office of the Information Commissioner launched guidelines to help firms comply with data protection laws, but some experts have argued that the legislation is still too complex. As a result, the information commissioner is to launch a further public consultation on data collection and storage policies. "I want to make it easier to protect personal information in practice," he said.

The commissioner also intends to lobby parliament to introduce secondary legislation to ease the burden on business. This would allow Thomas to reduce some of the administrative overhead of data protection legislation, without requiring changes to the Data Protection Act itself.

Thomas said much of his focus would be on the public sector, where a lot of sensitive information is routinely collected. But he will also look at the private sector, including credit reference agencies, and the way they obtain information. He is also considering how airlines should deal with requests from the US and other governments for more access to passenger data.

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