Scottish Borders Council dumped data case goes to hearing

A hearing is to be held into the council's appeal over the scale of the data breach fine

A hearing is to be held into a council appeal against the scale of a £250,000 fine after employee pension records were found in a supermarket car park.

Scottish Borders Council was given the penalty in September after the data was found in a paper recycling bank.

It paid the fine promptly to receive a 20% discount but said it would appeal against The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) decision.

A hearing will be held between 20 and 22 March in Edinburgh or the Borders.

The local authority received the fine last year for the incident in September 2011.

Hundreds of files relating to SBC's Local Government Pension Scheme were recovered from the recycling bank after being spotted by a member of the public.

The council checked them against records and then securely destroyed them.

The ICO said that it had only been "good fortune" that the records had been found by "someone sensible enough to call the police".

However, SBC said measures had been put in place to ensure there was no repeat of the incident.

It added that it was "very disappointing" to receive such a significant fine "especially in the current economic climate".

A decision on the appeal by a three-judge panel was expected by the end of this month but it will now go to a hearing instead.