There are 6,033 estate agents registered for data protection law purposes with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

In addition, there are 3,199 letting agents and 6,964 property management companies.

The statistics, revealed by the ICO after a Freedom of Information request by estate agent Chris Wood, relate to businesses and not branches.

The figures compare with 2010 when the ICO held records for 3,734 estate agents, 1,416 letting agents and 5,245 property management companies.

EYE has asked the ICO for its take on levels of industry compliance, and we will pursue this –having been asked to make our own Freedom of Information request.

Suffice it to say that all agents handle personal data as part of their business and should register their data controllers, or risk fines and criminal records.

According to Wood, the ICO is getting tough.

However, while it is possible to make a reasonable estimate of branch numbers via Rightmove and The Property Ombudsman, identifying numbers of businesses is much more difficult.

A company might operate several different brands but only two businesses. Alternatively, each brand might be a business.

An estate agent might operate its lettings wing as a separate business – and vice versa.

Then there are all those separate businesses that come under franchise umbrellas.

And that’s before we get to the number of self-employed local property directors and experts who work for online agents, and who should therefore each be registered.

We can’t begin to hazard any guesses.

Can you?