As we have passed the first half of 2013, I thought it would be a good time to publish the entire list of who fell foul of the UK Data Protection Act and were punished by the Information Commissioner (ICO).

There are three types of punishments administered by the ICO

1. Monetary. The most serious of the actions and one normally reserved for organisational entities.
2. Undertaking. Typically applied when an organisation has failed to adhere to good business practice and needs the helping guidance of the ICO
3. Prosecutions. Normally reserved for individuals who have blatantly breached the Act.

Monetary penalty notices

A monetary penalty will only be served in the most serious situations. When deciding the size of a monetary penalty, the ICO takes into account the seriousness of the breach and other factors like the size, financial and other resources of an organisation’s data controller. The ICO can impose a penalty of up to £500,000. It is worth noting that monetary penalties are paid to HM Treasury and not to the ICO. Many argue that the ICO would be a stronger body if it had more money and penalties is a good way to generate more revenue – a self funding government department.

• 12 July 2013 NHS Surrey. A monetary penalty notice has been served on NHS Surrey following the discovery of sensitive personal data belonging to thousands of patients on hard drives sold on an online auction site. Whilst NHS Surrey has now been dissolved outstanding issues are now being dealt with by the Department of Health.
• 8 July 2013 Tameside Energy Services Ltd. A monetary penalty notice has been served to Tameside Energy Services Ltd after the Manchester based company blighted the public with unwanted marketing calls.
• 18 June 2013 Nationwide Energy Services and We Claim You Gain. Monetary penalty notices have been served to Nationwide Energy Services and We Claim You Gain – both companies are part of Save Britain Money Ltd based in Swansea. The penalties were issued after the companies were found to be responsible for over 2,700 complaints to the Telephone Preference Service or reports to the ICO using its online survey, between 26 May 2011 and end of December 2012.
• 13 June 2013 North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust. A monetary penalty notice has been served to North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, after several faxes containing sensitive personal data were sent to a member of the public in error.
• 7 June 2013 Glasgow City Council. A monetary penalty notice has been served to Glasgow City Council, following the loss of two unencrypted laptops, one of which contained the personal information of 20,143 people.
• 5 June 2013 Halton Borough Council. A monetary penalty notice has been served to Halton Borough Council, in respect of an incident in which the home address of adoptive parents was wrongly disclosed to the birth family.
• 3 June 2013 Stockport Primary Care Trust. A monetary penalty has been served to Stockport Primary Care Trust following the discovery of a large number of patient records at a site formerly owned by the Trust.
• 20 March 2013 DM Design Bedroom Ltd. A monetary penalty has been served to DM Design Bedroom Ltd. The company has been the subject of nearly 2,000 complaints to the ICO and the Telephone Preference Service. The company consistently failed to check whether individuals had opted out of receiving marketing calls and responded to just a handful of the complaints received.
• 15 February 2013 Nursing and Midwifery Council. A monetary penalty has been served to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The council lost three DVDs related to a nurse’s misconduct hearing, which contained confidential personal information and evidence from two vulnerable children. An ICO investigation found the information was not encrypted.
• 24 January 2013 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited. A monetary penalty has been served to the entertainment company Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited following a serious breach of the Data Protection Act. The penalty comes after the Sony PlayStation Network Platform was hacked in April 2011, compromising the personal information of millions of customers, including their names, addresses, email addresses, dates of birth and account passwords. Customers’ payment card details were also at risk. They failed in their bid to appeal.

Undertakings

Undertakings are formal agreements between an organisation and the ICO to undertake certain actions to avoid future breaches of the Data Protection Act, typically this involves, Encryption, Training and Management Procedures.

• 16 July 2013 Janet Thomas. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Janet Thomas. This follows a report made by a member of the public that approximately 7,435 CV files, containing personal data, were being stored unprotected on the website
• 9 July 2013 Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC). An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) after an incident in which papers containing personal data were stolen on a train in 2011.
• 12 June 2013 (issued 10 September 2012) Bedford Borough Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Bedford Borough Council relating to the removal of legacy data from a social care database.
• 2 June 2013 (issued 18 September 2012) Central Bedfordshire Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Central Bedfordshire Council relating to the removal of legacy data from a social care database and in relation to the preparation of planning application documentation for publication.
• 31 May 2013 Leeds City Council. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Leeds City Council has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed November 2012.
• May Prospect. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Prospect has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed January 2013.
• 21 May 2013 (issued 9 November 2011) News Group Newspapers. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by News Group Newspapers, following an attack on the website of The Sun newspaper in 2011.
• 26 April 2013 The Burnett Practice. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by The Burnett Practice. This follows an investigation whereby an email account used by the practice had been subject to a third party attack. The email account subject to the attack was used to provide test results to patients and included a list of names and email addresses.
• 4 April 2013 East Riding of Yorkshire Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, following incidents last year in which personal data was inappropriately disclosed.
• 25 January 2013 Mansfield District Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by the Managing Director of Mansfield District Council. This follows a number of incidents where personal data of housing benefit claimants was disclosed to the wrong landlord.
• 16 January 2013 Prospect. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by the union Prospect. This follows an incident in which two files containing personal details of approximately 19,000 members of the union had been sent to an unknown third party email address in error.

Prosecutions

• 23 May 2013 A former manager of a health service based at a council-run leisure centre in Southampton has been prosecuted under section 55 of the Data Protection Act for unlawfully obtaining sensitive medical information relating to over 2,000 people.
• 8 April 2013 A Hertfordshire estate agent has been prosecuted under section 17 of the Data Protection Act after failing to notify with the ICO.
• 12 March 2013 A former receptionist at a GP surgery in Southampton has been prosecuted under section 55 of the Data Protection Act for unlawfully obtaining sensitive medical information relating to her ex-husband’s new wife.

Also read

• 2012 was a big year for the Data Protection Act with record fines and breaches, see the full 2012 list here.
• 2013 looks like being a bigger year than 2012 as the ICO starts catching up with the backlog of breach.