The days of compliance being a box-ticking exercise are gone. As regulatory pressures mount going into 2026, compliance is not just about avoiding penalties for your business but also about building confidence in your decisions.
At the forefront of this will be your decisions surrounding data. From tighter controls around data sovereignty to evolving sustainability and supply chain reporting, rules and requirements are evolving faster than ever.
- £1.06 billion in GDPR fines were issued in 2024; Ireland alone accounts for £3 billion since 2018 (GDPR Enforcement Tracker, 2025).
- 144 countries now have comprehensive data protection or privacy laws (UNCTAD, 2025).
- In October 2025, the UK ICO fined Capita £14 million after a breach affecting over 6 million people (ICO, 2025).
The key to staying on top of these evolving rules is a data-first approach, where accurate, connected and transparent data not only underpins your approach to compliance but your business itself.
Use data as your foundation for compliance
Many compliance failures stem from fragmented data. Different departments track information in separate systems, creating blind spots and delays.
- 81 % of leaders say data silos hinder digital transformation (Accenture, 2024).
- 26 % of data is considered untrustworthy, and 19 % is siloed or unusable (IDC, 2024).
- 49 % of companies still manage ESG data in spreadsheets (Workiva ESG Survey, 2025).
A data-first business starts by establishing a single source of truth. This means mapping where critical data lives, how it moves and who owns it.
Once this foundation is established, you can automate monitoring, reduce reporting errors and respond faster when regulations change.
Regulators are increasingly asking for more evidence of data lineage, aka the ability to trace how information is created, changed and used.
Businesses that invest in structured data governance now will find it far easier to prove accountability later.
Use compliance as a diagnostic tool
A strong compliance framework helps reveal inefficiencies long before they become problems for your business.
- Only 23 % of organisations use analytics or predictive modelling for compliance monitoring (Deloitte, 2025).
- Continuous auditing identifies duplicated effort and improves accuracy early (IIA UK, 2025).
When you analyse compliance data properly, patterns like unnecessary approvals, duplicated checks or wasted time chasing incomplete information emerge.
Audits in this light are key opportunities to benchmark data quality and control.
The organisations that thrive will be those that turn each compliance cycle into a performance review for their information management practices.
Embrace real-time reporting
Regulators are increasingly moving away from annual declarations towards continuous or near-real-time data submission.
Environmental reporting, ESG metrics and financial transparency all demand live information flows. If your systems still rely on spreadsheets and manual consolidation, you’ll struggle to keep up.
- The EU’s VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) initiative could cut VAT fraud by £9.70 billion (€11 billion) and reduce admin costs by £3.62 billion (€4.1 billion) annually (European Commission, 2024).
- Poland’s KSeF e-invoicing system becomes mandatory in 2026—Feb 1 for large taxpayers, Apr 1 for others (Ministry of Finance PL, 2025).
- 94 % of companies plan to increase ESG tech investment, with automation a top priority (PwC ESG Tech Survey, 2025).
Investing in platforms that collect and validate data automatically is a key step to getting prepared. This embeds compliance into everyday operations, rather than treating it as a separate exercise.
This also enables you to set clear data standards internally, ensuring suppliers and partners align with the same principles.
Treat people as part of the process
Technology can streamline compliance, but your culture determines whether it succeeds.
Every employee who creates, edits or approves data is part of your compliance ecosystem. This means to stay compliant you need to train people to understand the “why” behind controls, so compliance becomes visible in daily workflows.
- 74 % of data breaches involve the human element (Verizon DBIR, 2025).
- The median compliance team has only 4 people, underscoring the need for automation (Thomson Reuters, 2025).
When staff understand how accurate data protects both the organisation and their own day-to-day work, accountability becomes natural.
The advantage in 2026
Moving into 2026, your renewed focus on compliance with reward you with clarity.
- The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) applies to 2024 financial years, with wider rollout to SMEs by 2028.
- 74 % of manufacturers report being affected by new supply-chain due-diligence rules (EY Supply Chain Survey, 2025).
Businesses that know their data, trust their systems and act transparently are likelier to gain faster access to markets, partners and finance.
Why? Because a data-first approach doesn’t just keep you compliant; it proves your organisation is well-managed, efficient and ready for the future.