Wakefield Council data breach put mum and children at risk

Wakefield Council said it had "responded quickly" to the breach

A mother and her children had to be moved into emergency housing after a council wrongly released court documents in a child protection case.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it had reprimanded Wakefield Council over the 2022 error, when papers, including their address, were passed to the children's father.

It said the council "failed to ensure an appropriate level of security".

The council said it had taken steps to prevent further data breaches.

At the time of the error the mother was fearful of the father due to a history of ongoing domestic violence and a break-in at their previous accommodation, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

An internal investigation found the cause of the breach was a failure by a social worker to identify that the mother's address was included in the medical report.

The report added: "The social worker sent the documents to the team manager, who subsequently sent them to the legal department.

"The legal department then filed the documents to all parties of the proceedings, which included the father."

An ICO investigator's report said: "As a result of the breach, the mother and her children had to be moved into emergency alternative accommodation on the same day of the breach."

'New processes'

Gillian Marshall, Wakefield Council's chief legal officer, said "I'd like to reassure all our residents that we responded very quickly to this breach and immediately made sure that those affected were safe.

"We have new internal processes which are regularly tested and reviewed alongside ongoing assurance checks.

"No data breach is acceptable, and we will do everything we can to prevent it happening again."

Wakefield Council was one of seven organisations reprimanded by the ICO in the last 14 months for data breaches affecting victims of domestic abuse.

John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner, said: "These families reached out for help to escape unimaginable violence, to protect them from harm and to seek support to move forward from dangerous situations."

He said the people they trusted to help had "exposed them to further risk".

"Organisations should be doing everything necessary to protect the personal information in their care," he added.