The borough council twice sent banking details to the wrong people and published highly sensitive information online, a new Government report has revealed.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has come under fire from the Information Commissioner’s Office following a spate of serious data breaches in 2011.
Borough council chief executive Tony Curtis said the authority was refreshing its staff training to stop further breaches.
The head of enforcement for the commissioner’s office, Stephen Eckersley, has issued a legal document to the council forcing it to take action following the mistakes.
In May and June 2011, council tax officers twice accidentally disclosed name, address, bank, and credit card details to the wrong people. In June, a three-page gypsy liaison report containing sensitive personal information was published on the council’s website, without personal details being blanked out.
And in May last year, a letter outlining a case of alleged benefit fraud was given to the wrong person. The same person was later given a confidential list of 29 people living at two supported housing properties.
Following the commissioner's report, Tony Curtis sought to reassure residents that measures were being put in place to curb further mistakes and said he had written to staff reminding them to take extra care with sensitive information.
“We take these breaches very seriously,” he said. “We are handling many thousands of transactions and sheets of paper a week and human or machine errors are very difficult to eradicate completely. I can, however, assure residents that we are doing everything that we can to stop such a breach happening again. The importance of data protection has been reinforced to all our staff and they are all refreshing their annual data protection training.
“Every team in the council is being required to address how their processes can be tightened.
“We need to be extra vigilant to ensure that personal data remains secure.”
The borough council was one of five authorities rapped by information commissioner Christopher Graham last week.
Youth charity Fairbridge and social care provider Turning Point, which has a district office in Winklebury, was also criticised.
“At a time when councils are increasingly working with community partners, when data is shared it is vital that they uphold their legal responsibilities under the Data Protection Act,” said Mr Graham.
“Failures not only put local residents’ privacy at risk, but also mean that councils could be in line for a sizeable monetary penalty.”
