Council admits loss of confidential information
The council’s chief executive, Nick Carter said the majority of incidents have been down to human error and moved to reassure the public that the council’s IT systems were secure.
In the last year, the following confidential information has been lost by the local authority, but in all but one case the documents were recovered:
*December 16, 2011: Child’s review report posted to wrong address. Recipient advised the council and returned unopened. The council’s address database has now been updated.
*March 28, 2012: Child’s review report posted to wrong address. Recipient advised the council and the item was recovered. The council’s address database has now been updated. The process for getting families to report changes of address was also updated after this incident.
*April 16, 2012: Two extra council tax letters, not for the recipient, placed in an envelope. Recipient advised the council and the items were recovered. Temporary staff had not followed instructions. The council said these tasks are now carried out by internal staff.
*May 15, 2012: Education Services letter sent to old address. Not recovered, but the council said the letter did not contain sensitive information. New procedures for sending such information have now been introduced by the local authority.
*June 19, 2012: Third party private phone numbers given in paperwork to a parent. Apology given by the council. The incident is being investigated and a report is being considered.
*July 2, 2012: Letter regarding social care direct payments sent to wrong address. Recipient returned it unopened. Additional checking procedures have now been introduced by the council.
Public relations manager for West Berkshire Council, Keith Ulyatt said the council was now working to put better checks and balances in place to reduce the amount of lost confidential information.
“The council continually reviews procedures to reduce the risk of data being misplaced,” he added.
However, West Berkshire Labour Party spokesperson Richard Garvie said the council should adopt a more proactive position on the issue of data loss to prevent further incidents occurring.
"Six occasions of losing confidential data is six occasions too many and the people of West Berkshire deserve better,” he said. “This issue keeps coming up time and time again, and I'd like the council to go a step further this time and publish what steps they will be taking to prevent further incidents from taking place, as simply reviewing when things have gone wrong is like trying to close the stable door once the horse has bolted."
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat shadow portfolio holder for localism, Tony Vickers (Northcroft) said: "The risk to residents from not sharing information between services, often due to an over-cautious attitude to data protection regulation, is probably far greater than the risks to the council of not guarding sensitive information.
“The Lib Dems have been pressing for an 'opt out' on more forms, so that there is no doubt that various services dealing with vulnerable people know they can normally share information which it is clearly in the interests of the person for them to have.”