The popularity of mobile working continues to grow in the UK, but many firms are still concerned about the security implications of investing in mobile devices for employees, according to new research released by Sony Ericsson.

The survey found that over half of the workforce now works away from the office at some point during the week and a further half said that this had increased in the last year. The research echoes a previous survey released at 3GSM by mobile platform provider Visto which predicted up to 70 percent of the mobile workforce will use mobile email by the end of this year

"The mobile working [trend] seems to be increasing all the time," said Sony marketing manager Richard Dorman. "It's partly down to greater workloads and partly that people are managing their time more effectively."

However, while 82 percent of medium and large enterprises said they are prepared to invest in mobile devices for their staff to improve productivity, efficiency and employee motivation, roughly the same percentage said they have data and security concerns.

Dorman argued that there were technologies in place to mitigate these security risks, but added that a lack of trust of mobile employees is also often a barrier to greater buy-in from organisations.

Internet access from mobile devices is also growing in popularity according to the survey. Around half of respondents said they access the net from their mobile and 22 percent said they'd like this tool to be provided by their enterprise.

Being kept up-to-date with market news through RSS feeds or using online map applications to locate customers' homes and offices are two potentially popular uses for the mobile internet, added Dorman.