Scottish Borders Council data fine appeal hearing begins

A hearing being held into the council's appeal over the scale of the data breach fine

An appeal hearing is under way into a £250,000 penalty imposed on Scottish Borders Council for data protection failings.

The authority was fined after employee pension records were found dumped in a supermarket car park.

The council paid promptly in order to receive a 20% discount but appealed against the scale of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) penalty.

A three-judge panel will hear evidence before giving a final decision.

The incident happened in September 2011 when a total of 676 files relating to SBC's Local Government Pension Scheme were recovered from the recycling bank.

A year later the ICO imposed the fine on the council.

It described it as a "classic case of an organisation taking its eye off the ball when it came to outsourcing".

It added that it was only "good fortune" that the records had been found by somebody sensible enough to call the police.

The council said at the time that the scale of the fine was "very disappointing".

A hearing at Kings Court in North Shields will now decide whether the authority's appeal should be successful.