A new industry report on the state of compliance in businesses across the UK has uncovered a leadership gap in meeting regulatory demands, despite increased scrutiny and new regulations coming into force.

The Annual Benchmarking Report, from compliance training provider Skillcast, surveyed over 100 compliance, learning and development, and training professionals from a diverse range of organisations.

The findings highlight critical challenges as businesses adapt to new requirements, including the recently introduced Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which has applied since January 2025. DORA requires financial service providers to comply with regulations aimed at preventing operational disruptions caused by cybersecurity and ICT-related issues.

Despite the risk of fines and reputational damage, fewer than 50% of respondents reported that senior leadership actively champions their organisation’s compliance programme – compared to 83% of the compliance team. Skillcast has labelled this disparity as a “wake up call” for businesses.

The survey found that reliance on Excel continues to persist, with 81% of businesses solely using spreadsheets to document compliance and track staff data, raising concerns of data security, and creating risks of orphaned records, duplicates and inconsistencies.

Manual processes also continue to hinder progress and remain the biggest obstacle businesses state in achieving compliance goals, with 58% citing this as a challenge, reinforced by the fact that 57% don’t use any form of AI to support their control measures.

And while over half (58%) of respondents agree that compliance ensures better customer outcomes, only 26% view it as a competitive advantage, indicating a disconnect between compliance and marketing teams.

There’s also a demand for more engaging training, with over half (53%) of respondents expressing a need for shorter, more engaging compliance courses and programmes.

Vivek Dodd, CEO at Skillcast, said:  “In times of consumer cynicism towards financial institutions, and with the rollout of DORA 2025, it’s disappointing that fewer than 50% of respondents said that senior leadership is championing compliance.

“This work is essential, and compliance and risk teams need clear and vocal support to embed compliance into the culture of a business from the top down, and make it a core business policy and a fundamental part of their overall strategy.

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“77% of respondents cited the biggest reason for justifying the cost of compliance as avoiding fines and reputational loss, which is a huge sign that marketing and compliance need to join forces to protect the brand, attract new customers, and ultimately ensure better outcomes for everyone.

“With attention spans at an all-time low, our benchmarking report highlights the urgent need for businesses to modernise their compliance practices. Organisations must invest in specialist digital platforms to make it as simple as possible for employees to do training, and for the compliance team to bridge the gap between them and other departments, securing active support from senior leadership.”