Less than half of organisations in the UK have a business continuity plan in place, a new study has show.

According to the Chartered Management Institute's (CMI) study on the subject, only 47 per cent of bodies in the UK have a businesses continuity plan in place.

The CMI says this has barely changed since it began studying the subject in 2002 when only 45 per cent of respondents had a business continuity plan.

Bruce Mann, director of civil contingencies at the Cabinet Office - which backed the study - said: "Too many organisations still do not have effective business continuity arrangements in place.

"This view is echoed by the findings from Sir Michael Pitt’s review of the 2007 floods. It is bad news for employees, shareholders, customers and communities."

On Friday a new international standard on business continuity was launched.

It is aims to offer guidance on the best way to implement disaster recovery procedures.

New research from Connect found that, on average, it takes businesses that use backup tapes take 11.6 hours to retrieve and restore files. Connect is now recommending that SMEs switch to www.totalrecall.co.uk