North East Lincolnshire Council fined £80,000 after losing data on 286 special needs children
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A council has been fined £80,000 for losing the personal data of 286 children with special needs.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) handed North East Lincolnshire Council the penalty after a memory stick containing the information went missing.
The unencrypted device contained sensitive information about the children, including information about their mental and physical health problems and teaching requirements.
It also included the pupils’ dates of birth and details of some of their addresses and information about their home lives.
The information has been missing since 1 July 2011 when the memory stick was left in a laptop at the council’s offices by a special educational needs teacher. When the teacher returned to the laptop, the memory stick was gone, the ICO said. Although the council had introduced a policy of encrypting portable devices in April 2011, it failed to make sure all of the memory sticks being used by its staff were encrypted, the ICO said.
The council was also unable to confirm if the teacher had received data protection training at the time of the loss.
ICO head of enforcement Stephen Eckersley said: “This breach should act as a warning to all organisations that their data protection policies must work in practice.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments