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UK: ICO levies two monetary fines to councils for e-mail gaffes that exposed sensitive information

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Dissent

The The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has served monetary penalties to North Somerset Council and Worcestershire County Council after staff at both authorities sent highly sensitive personal information to the wrong recipients. The news comes as the Information Commissioner is pressing for stronger powers to audit data protection compliance across local government and the NHS.

The ICO has served a monetary penalty of £80,000 to Worcestershire County Council for an incident in March 2011 where a member of staff emailed highly sensitive personal information about a large number of vulnerable people to 23 unintended recipients. The error occurred when the employee clicked on an additional contact list before sending the email, which had only been intended for internal use. Fortunately, on this occasion all of the unintended recipients worked for registered organisations used to operating within the council’s protocols about handling sensitive data. Worcestershire County Council has explained to the ICO that as soon as the breach occurred the council employee immediately realized her error and attempted to contact all of the unintended recipients to ensure that the information was deleted.

North Somerset Council has also been served with a monetary penalty of £60,000 for a serious breach of the Data Protection Act where a council employee sent five emails, two of which contained highly sensitive and confidential information about a child’s serious case review, to the wrong NHS employee due to similarity in their names when the names were abbreviated.

The incidents – which took place during November and December 2010 – occurred when a council employee selected the wrong email address when creating a personal distribution list. The council employee was told about the error by the unintended recipient shortly after the first incident took place. Despite this, information was emailed to the same NHS employee on a further three occasions. The issue was then raised at senior level. Two of the council’s Assistant Directors highlighted the issue with the employee on 9 December but a fifth and final incident took place later that same day. The NHS organisation verbally confirmed to North Somerset Council that it destroyed the emails after their own internal investigation was complete.

The ICO’s enquiries found that, although North Somerset Council had some policies and procedures in place, it had failed to ensure that relevant staff received appropriate data protection training. In response to these incidents, the ICO has recommended that the council adopts a more secure means to send information electronically, including encryption and ensuring that managers sign off email distribution lists.

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said:

“Personal information in cases involving vulnerable people is about the most sensitive personal information imaginable. It is of great concern that this sort of information was simply sent to the wrong recipients by staff at two separate councils. It was fortunate that in both cases at least the email recipients worked in a similar sector and so were used to handling sensitive information. This mitigating factor has been taken into account in assessing the amount of the penalties.

“There is too much of this sort of thing going on across local government. People who handle highly sensitive personal information need to understand the real weight of responsibility that comes with keeping it secure. Of course this includes having the correct training and policies in place, but it’s also about common sense. Considering whether email is the appropriate medium, checking and double checking that the right recipients will receive the information – and measures like encryption and data minimisation – should be routine. I hope these penalties send a clear message to those working in the social care sector. The Information Commissioner takes this sloppiness seriously – and so should you.”

The ICO is pressing the Ministry of Justice for stronger powers to audit local councils’ data protection compliance, if necessary without consent.  The same powers are sought for NHS bodies following a series of data protection breaches.

Following the incidents, both North Somerset and Worcestershire councils have undertaken substantial remedial action to reduce the likelihood of further breaches.

Source: Information Commissioner’s Office

If I’m counting on my fingers correctly, this makes the 5th and 6th monetary penalties imposed on councils compared to two imposed on the business sector – and none on any other sector.  This is sure to inspire some comments as to why the ICO might appear to be going more lightly with the business, education, or healthcare sectors.

Related posts:

  • UK: Statement on an agreement reached between Somerset Bridge Insurance Services Limited and the ICO
  • UK: ICO finds three councils in breach of Data Protection Act
  • UK: ICO issues monetary penalty of £120,000 to Surrey Council over misdirected emails
  • Data breaches put domestic abuse victims’ lives at risk, UK Information Commissioner warns
Category: Breach IncidentsExposureGovernment SectorNon-U.S.

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