Two county councils fined by ICO over \'serious email errors\'

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has served fines to North Somerset Council and Worcestershire County Council for ‘serious email errors'.

The ICO said that during both incidents staff sent highly sensitive personal information to the inaccurate recipients. The first  occurred at North Somerset Council in November 2010, when a council employee sent five emails, two of which contained highly sensitive and confidential details about a child's serious case review, to the inaccurate NHS employee.

The council employee was told concerning the error by the unintended recipient shortly after, but despite this, information was emailed to the similar NHS employee on another three occasions.

The issue was then raised at senior level when two of the council's assistant directors highlighted the difficulty with the worker, but a fifth and final incident happened later that very same day.

North Somerset Council have been served with a monetary penalty of £60,000 for a significant breach of the information Protection Act. The ICO confirmed that the NHS organisation said it destroyed the emails after its own internal investigation was complete, and that while North Somerset Council had some policies and procedures in place, it had didn't be sure that relevant staff received appropriate data protection training.

The other incident occurred in March 2011, when a member of staff at Worcestershire County Council emailed highly sensitive personal details about loads of vulnerable people to 23 unintended recipients.

The error occurred when the worker clicked on yet another contact list before sending the e-mail, which had only been intended for internal use. Worcestershire County Council has explained to the ICO that once the breach occurred the council employee immediately realised their error and attempted to contact all the unintended recipients making sure that the info was deleted.

Despite this, the ICO has served a penalty of £80,000 to the council.

Information commissioner Christopher Graham said: “Personal information in cases involving vulnerable people is ready the foremost sensitive personal information imaginable. It's far of serious concern that the sort of information was simply sent to the incorrect recipients by staff at two separate councils.

“It was fortunate that during both cases at the very least the e-mail recipients worked in the same sector and so were used to handling sensitive information. This mitigating factor was taken under consideration in assessing the quantity of the penalties.

“There is simply too much of this type of thing occurring across local government. Those who handle highly sensitive personal information have to understand the genuine weight of responsibility that includes keeping it secure. In fact this includes having the proper training and policies in place, but it is also about good judgment.

“Considering whether email is the perfect medium, checking and double checking that the best recipients will receive the info, and measures like encryption and information minimisation, needs to be routine. i'm hoping these penalties send a transparent message to these working within the social care sector. The tips Commissioner takes this sloppiness seriously â€" and so in the event you.”

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