Labour-run Leicester City Council has accidentally sent a spreadsheet containing the names and addresses of vulnerable children to dozens of taxi firms, Guido can reveal. The spreadsheet was mistakenly sent out with a routine tender request from the council’s Passenger and Transport Services Department, which arranges transport of children subject to protection orders, children with special needs, vulnerable adults, and elderly people. The council subsequently sent out another email pleading with recipients not to share the data further:
“This email had a large file (23Mb) attached to it called ************* that contains passenger information and was sent in error to your company.
“Please delete this email.
“Please then delete the email from your “Deleted items” folder
“Please do not try to open or read it.
“If you have opened/read it, then please do not disclose its contents or forward any information from it to any person or organisation. To do so is a Section 55 offence under the Data Protection Act 1998. Please reply to this address as soon as possible to confirm that you have received this email and acted upon it, and have not (and will not) open it or share/read its contents and have completed all the actions listed above.”
A Leicester City Council spokesperson said:
“Information was mistakenly shared by a staff member with 27 taxi firms we hold contracts with. Information would normally be shared with taxi companies on a much more limited basis. We take data protection and confidentiality very seriously and took immediate action, contacting all of the firms and asking them to delete the information. We reminded them that under the terms of their contract, they must comply with laws on data protection. We are investigating and will report this incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office.”
You couldn’t make it up…
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