Hundreds of data breaches by Yorkshire town halls

Figures published today reveal the extent to which sensitive data or personal information has been lost or stolen or misused by town hall officials in the region.

The campaign group Big Brother Watch have published a report based on freedom of information act responses from town halls across the country.

In the majority of these cases no disciplinary action was taken by local authorities.

In one case in Calderdale notes from a meeting about child care were found in a bin outside a council reception.

Doncaster reported the highest number of data breaches in the region and the seventh highest in the country with 106 incidents between April 2011 and April 2014.

Disciplinary action was taken on seven occasions including for a member of staff accessing information for personal gain. At Bradford Council a member of staff had their employment terminated following the improper use of information for personal gain.

York had the second highest number of incidents in the region with 73, but 72 of these did not result in any disciplinary action. There was also 33 breaches in Kirklees, 26 in the East Riding and 12 in Wakefield.

The report also showed a series of astonishing data lapses from elsewhere in the country.

in one case a social worker in Lewisham left papers containing confidential records about children and information linked to sex offenders on a train.

Another saw a CCTV operator in Cheshire use cameras to watch a colleague’s wedding.

Local authorities recorded a total of 4,236 data breaches in three years from April 2011 - a rate of almost four every day, the study has found.

Sensitive or confidential information was compromised in 260 of the cases, while breaches involved personal data linked to children on 658 occasions.

Big Brother Watch called for custodial sentences to be introduced for the most serious data breaches after finding just one in 10 resulted in disciplinary action and only one led to a prosecution.

Director Emma Carr said: “Despite local councils being trusted with increasing amounts of our personal data, this report highlights that they are simply not able to say it is safe with them.

“A number of examples show shockingly lax attitudes to protecting confidential information.

“With only a tiny fraction of staff being disciplined or dismissed, this raises the question of how seriously local councils take protecting the privacy of the public.”

However town halls have defended their records.

Julie Grant, Doncaster Council’s assistant director of customer Services and ICT said: “Doncaster Council takes its obligations under the Data Protection Act extremely seriously and records every single incident no matter how minor to ensure personal data is as secure as possible at all times. The council deals with hundreds of services and the amount of 106 breaches is over three years with only seven breaches serious enough to report to the Information Commissioner’s Office, that said we appreciate this is still too many and we are constantly trying to reduce. Actions include continuous repeated training and awareness for all staff that have access to personal data and a thorough reporting, investigation and disciplinary mechanism as required, should any breaches arise”.