ICO tells Ealing to ‘toughen up’ data protection as court bundle lost

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has warned Ealing Council to toughen up the way it protects personal information, after a social worker employed by the local authority left court records on the roof of her car and drove off.

The documents lost in the incident this February included personal data and sensitive information relating to 14 children and 13 adults and have never been recovered.

An ICO investigation also found that only 68% of permanent social care staff at the council had completed refresher data protection training.

Sally-Anne Poole, enforcement manager at the ICO, said: “Many of us have no choice but to take work out of the office.

“But when that work includes personal data, there is an obligation to ensure it is kept safe. People have a right to expect that will happen.”

The ICO added that the council had failed to implement its previous recommendation to improve its staff training on handling personal information.

Furthermore, it raised concerns about Ealing’s use of temporary social workers, who make up 27% of its children’s services workforce. The council had no record of how many of them had completed the training.

In addition, the local authority could not produce a record of its policy on removing documents from its offices, and no longer provided secure cases for staff transporting documents.

The ICO chose not to issue a Data Protection Act enforcement notice to Ealing Council. However, Paul Najsarek, the council’s chief executive, signed an undertaking to carry out a number of improvements by April 2017.

These include ensuring that all permanent, locum and temporary social care staff who handle personal data complete refresher training; making lockable cases available to all departments; and carrying out a review of roles and responsibilities for printing and transporting documents required as part of court bundles.

A council spokesperson said: “We regret that this has happened and fully accept the findings and recommendations of the ICO, which we have begun to implement.”

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