Databarracks’ latest Data Health Check report shows that large UK organizations are taking business continuity seriously. 97% of such organizations surveyed for the report have business continuity plans in place and, as importantly, these plans are being tested and exercised.
The situation is not quite as encouraging among smaller organizations, with only 58% of these having business continuity plans in place.
Overall, 85% of the organizations surveyed for the report have business continuity plans, and 80% of them are up to date.
Organizations with business continuity plans are also supporting them with broader response structures:
- 92% also have an IT disaster recovery plan
- 82% also have a crisis management plan
- 80% also have a crisis communications plan.
Other key findings include:
- In the past year, 9 in 10 organizations tested elements of their recovery process.
- Testing and exercising are now seen as essential to closing the gap between theory and execution, especially as tolerance for downtime continues to shrink.
- In 2025, a majority of organizations say they could not survive more than half a day without critical IT systems.
- Updating continuity plans, and testing and exercising, are among the top resilience priorities for organizations in 2025, identified as such by 36% and 33% respectively.
Chris Butler, Resilience Director at Databarracks, commented:
“This year’s Data Health Check shows a positive shift: business continuity isn’t just about documents anymore – it’s about capability. The organizations that test regularly are the ones that recover confidently.
“Plans give structure. Testing gives certainty. We’re seeing more organizations learning from real incidents and exercises, then feeding those lessons back into their business continuity processes. That’s especially important when recovery doesn’t go to plan – and this year, 9 in 10 organizations that experienced a cyber attack said their recovery could have been more effective. More testing and exercising was the most-cited route to improvement, closely followed by better coordination of response, and improved plans and documentation.”
