Labour Relations Agency apologises for data breach

The Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland has apologised for sharing the email addresses and, in some cases the names, of more than 200 service users.

The agency deals confidentially with sensitive labour disputes between employees and employers.

But when it attempted to email 213 clients it made their email addresses visible to all the other recipients, the BBC's Evening Extra revealed.

All the clients had used the agency's Early Conciliation programme.

The Labour Relations Agency has confirmed it is now preparing a report for the Information Commissioner's Office.

In a statement, the Labour Relations Agency said that on 19 October customers were invited by email to complete a customer satisfaction survey, but that "recipients of the survey should have been blind copied and we apologise unreservedly that on this occasion they were not".

"This survey was issued manually, whereas in future it will be automated," it added.

"That will mean that every individual will get a separate email and therefore this cannot happen again.

"The surveys were sent in batches according to customer category, so employees and employers did not receive the same email.

"No other customer information was included."

The agency said it had issued an apology to recipients and was currently taking advice from the Information Commissioner's Office.