Cornwall Council data breach: Children's details published

The documents included details of a teenager's own personal mobile number and email address

A council has accidentally published the personal details of five school children in publicly accessible meeting documents.

Cornwall Council has apologised for the data breach, which included their names, addresses and dates of birth.

It made the error when it published online documents for a meeting of its School Transport Appeals Committee.

The council said it "was published in full on the council's website as a result of human error".

The meeting was scheduled for Monday to discuss appeals made by parents in relation to school transport for their children, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.

Mobile number

Included in the documents were children's names, schools, home addresses and dates of birth.

In one case the documents also included details of a teenager's own personal mobile number and email address.

In addition the paperwork included the names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers for the children's parents. 

Among the published documents were an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for one of the children and an extract from a court document.

The council said it had made a formal apology to the families affected, and said: "A report which should have been only available to elected members on the School Transport Appeal Committee, was published in full on the council's website as a result of human error.

"The report contained personal data belonging to five children and their families in relation to their school transport appeals.

"As soon as the council became aware, the information was removed from the website and the families concerned were informed and offered a full apology."

The council has notified the Information Commissioner's Office and said it will fully cooperate with any formal investigation.

"Every incident of data loss is treated extremely seriously and thoroughly investigated to minimise any possible harm and to find ways of preventing it happening again," its statement added.