Here's a fact that will leave many scratching their heads: the corporations most actively preparing for the European Union's (EU) General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) hail from the one country looking to greatly distance itself from the European continent.

Despite a looming Brexit, U.K. corporations are leading the way with GDPR compliance, with 40 percent having begun GDPR preparations, compared with 28 percent in the EU and 5 percent in the U.S., according a survey of over 800 corporate IT professionals across the three regions conducted by IT community organization Spiceworks. In addition, the survey found that 5 percent of organizations in the U.K. are fully prepared for the regulation, more than double the amount in the EU and U.S.

Though the U.K. may decide to implement its own data privacy regulation once it leaves the EU as planned in spring 2019, a year after the GDPR's early 2018 implementation, U.K. corporations that store, process or collect any EU citizens' personal data will be bound to comply with the GDPR, due to the regulation's extraterritorial reach. Peter Tsai, a senior technology analyst at Spiceworks and author of the report detailing the survey's findings, noted that the higher level of preparation in the U.K. is in large part due to the expected impact of the impending Brexit. By focusing on the GDPR now, he explained, U.K. organizations are looking to free up employees tasked with regulatory compliance to grapple with potential new laws and regulations the U.K. will pass once untangled from EU jurisdiction.