Less than one in four UK businesses are confident that they could rely on email as legal evidence in the event of harrassment or unlawful dismissal case.

While 44 percent said they could not prove whether their emails had been tampered with, 35 percent did not know if changes had been made, says a survey by research group Vanson Bourne on behalf of archiving and compliance supplier Forensic and Compliance.

Financial services organisations are better prepared, with only 45 percent unable to prove interference with emails, compared with 58 percent of retail, distribution and transport groups.