Councils on the ‘naughty step’

Two councils have got into trouble with the Information Commissioner after losing data on children.

Sandwell Council has signed an undertaking [link] after one of its employees lost an unencrypted memory stick that held details relating to four families where vulnerable children, who had either been taken into care or were the subject of child protection plans.

The staff member had downloaded the details on to the stick so that they could do work from home but the device was lost on the journey.

It contained information relating to four families and was not password protected. The stick included details of why the reasons the children were under the care of the council’s children protection team.

 At Wigan Council the Chief Executive Joyce Redfearn has also had to sign an undertaking [link] after a laptop computer containing details on nearly all the children in the authority was stolen.

The laptop, which was password protected, was stolen from a locked office. But the details of 43,000 children had been downloaded on to the machine in breach of the Council’s policy.