"Therefore we do not expect the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to take enforcement action in the short term against businesses and organisations as they work out how to address their use of cookies," he added.

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said: "I cannot bark at the industry at the moment because I have not got the regulations."

However, Mr Graham stressed that the government's confession that the regulations will be delayed should not be a spur to inaction.

"My message is that this is not your 'get out of jail free' card," he said.

The response to complaints about firms that flout the directive will be viewed in light of what they have done to prepare for it, continued Mr Graham.

Businesses should be considering how they will communicate with customers to get consent and look at the technical steps that might make that process easier, he explained.

Early work by the ICO suggests that gathering consent by changing settings on browsers may not be sophisticated enough for the demands of the directive.

"They have to think seriously about this," said Mr Graham. "It's going to happen and it's the law."