2014 was another busy year for the Information Commissioners Office with yet more breaches of the Data Protection Act.

There are normally 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 practise and needs the helping guidance of the ICO
3. Prosecutions. Normally reserved for individuals who have blatantly breached the Act.
4. Enforcements. A requirement on an organisation or individual to desist from specific activities.

Below is a summary of the ICO’s activity in 2014 across all three “punishment” areas.

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 to HM Treasury.

• 22 August 2014 a monetary penalty of £90,000 was issued to Kwik Fix Plumbers Ltd for continually making nuisance calls targeting vulnerable victims. In several cases, the calls resulted in elderly people being tricked into paying for boiler insurance they didn’t need.
• 5 December 2014 a monetary penalty of £70,000 was issued to Manchester Ltd after sending unsolicited text messages and appeared on the recipients’ mobile phone to have been sent by “Mum”.
• 05 November 2014 a monetary penalty of £7,500 was issued to Worldview Limited following a serious data breach where a vulnerability on the company’s site allowed attackers to access the full payment card details of 3,814 customers
• 01 October 2014 a monetary penalty of £70,000 was issued to fine to EMC Advisory Services Limited for making hundreds of nuisance calls. The company was responsible for 630 complaints to the ICO and the TPS between 1 March 2013 and 28 February 2014. They failed to make sure that those registered with the TPS, or who’d previously asked not to be contacted, weren’t being called.
• 26 August 2014 a monetary penalty of £180,000 to the Ministry of Justice over serious failings in the way prisons in England and Wales have been handling people’s information
• 28 July 2014 a monetary penalty of £50,000 fine to Reactiv Media Limited after an investigation discovered they had made unsolicited calls to hundreds of people who had registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
• 23 July 2014 a monetary penalty of £150,000 to Think W3 Limited after a serious breach of the Data Protection Act revealed thousands of people’s details to a malicious hacker.
• 03 April 2014 a monetary penalty of £50,000 Amber UPVC Fabrications Ltd (T/A Amber Windows) after an investigation discovered they had made unsolicited marketing calls to people who had registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
• 19 March 2014 a monetary penalty of £100,000 to Kent Police after highly sensitive and confidential information, including copies of police interview tapes, were left in a basement at the former site of a police station.
• 07 March 2014 a monetary penalty of £200,000 to the British Pregnancy Advice Service. Hacker threatened to publish thousands of names of people who sought advice on abortion, pregnancy and contraception.
• 11 January 2014 a monetary penalty of £185,000 to Department of Justice Northern Ireland after a filing cabinet containing details of a terrorist incident was sold at auction.

ICO statement on Monetary Penalties

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.

• 19 December 2014 Treasury Solicitors Department. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that the Treasury Solicitors Department has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed February 2014.
• 19 December 2014 Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed April 2014.
• 19 December 2014 Caerphilly County Borough Council. A council that ordered covert surveillance on a sick employee must review its approach after an Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigation. The ICO found the Council breached the Data Protection Act when it ordered the surveillance of an employee suspected of fraudulently claiming to be sick.
• 15 December 2014 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed June 2014.
• 01 December 2014 Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed April 2014.
• 28 November 2014 Oxfordshire County Council. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Oxfordshire County Council as appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed June 2014.
• 28 November 2014 Aspers (Milton Keynes) Limited. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Aspers (Milton Keynes) Limited has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed June 2014.
• 26 November 2014 Department of Justice Northern Ireland. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that the Department of Justice Northern Ireland has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed May 2014.
• 17 November 2014 London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that London borough of Barking and Dagenham has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed April 2014.
• 05 November 2014 Student Loans Company. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Student Loans Company has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed April 2014.
• 05 November 2014 Royal Veterinary College. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that The Royal Veterinary College has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed October 2013.
• 24 October 2014 Gwynedd Council. An Undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Gwynedd Council following two breaches of the Data Protection Act.
• 24 October 2014 Disclosure and Barring Service. An undertaking to comply with the first data protection principle has been signed by the Disclosure and Barring Service.
• 08 October 2014 South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust. An undertaking to comply with the first, third and seventh data protection principles has been signed by South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust. This includes the completion of a Privacy Impact Assessment in respect of data sharing. This follows an investigation whereby patient data related to 45, 431 data subjects was shared with a Clinical Commissioning Group (‘CCG’) without a legal basis to do so. There were also security concerns surrounding the manner in which the data was stored on discs when being distributed to the CCG.
• 08 October 2014 Weathersby Limited. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Weathersby Limited after the company failed to secure an internal server properly, resulting in personal data relating to clients being made available on the internet.
• 07 October 2014 Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This follows an investigation into two reported incidents involving disclosures of personal data to third parties in error.
• 25 September 2014 Norfolk Community Health & Care NHS Trust. An undertaking to comply with the first, third and seventh data protection principle has been signed by Norfolk Community Health & Care NHS Trust. This follows an investigation involving the inadvertent sharing of data with a referral management centre.
• 22 September 2014 Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.  This follows an investigation into two separate incidents involving disclosures of personal data.
• 09 September 2014 Isle of Scilly Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by the Council of the Isle of Scilly. This follows an investigation into two separate incidents. The first relating to confidential information which was part of a disciplinary hearing being sent unredacted to third parties.
• 28 August 2014 Racing Post. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by the Racing Post. This follows an investigation whereby the Racing Post website was subject to an internet based SQL injection attack which gave access to a customer database. The data included customer registration details relating to 677,335 data subjects.
• 13 August 2014 Wokingham Borough Council. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Wokingham Borough Council has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed April 2014.
• 11 August 2014 Thamesview Estate Agents Ltd. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Thamesview Estate Agents Ltd after the company continued to leave papers containing personal information on the street despite a previous warning. The papers were stored in transparent bags and the information was clearly visible to anyone who walked past.
• 18 July 2014 The Moray Council. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that The Moray Council has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed May 2014.
• 09 July 2014 Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board after sensitive information was sent to the wrong address.
• 27 June 2014 Oxfordshire County Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Oxfordshire County Council. This follows an investigation whereby a solicitor had removed a number of documents from the office but had dropped these in a street near their home. The sensitive personal data related to three child protection cases concerning 22 data subjects.
• 23 June 2014 Aspers (Milton Keynes) Limited. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Aspers (Milton Keynes) Limited, following an email which was sent in error to an recipient outside of the organisation.
• 19 June 2014 Department of Justice Northern Ireland. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Department of Justice Northern Ireland. This follows the sale of a filing cabinet that contained documents originating from within the Northern Ireland Prison service. The documents contained personal data, as defined by section 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), which was sensitive in nature.
• 17 June 2014 Aberdeenshire Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Aberdeenshire Council after a paper file was lost by an employee of the Adult Mental Health section of the council’s Social Work service. The employee had placed the file on the roof of his car before driving off.
• 16 June 2014 Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed October 2013.
• 09 June 2014 Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust. This follows an investigation whereby the local press were handed a patient handover sheet containing details of 18 patients.
• 02 June 2014 Jephson Homes Housing Association Ltd. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Jephson Homes Housing Association Ltd. This follows an investigation into the disclosure in error of several documents containing third party personal data when providing documents to an individual as part of a litigation process.
• 30 May 2014 Panasonic UK. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Panasonic UK has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed October 2013.
• 30 May 2014 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council after child’s foster placement address was disclosed in error.  Investigations identified that Council had selected the correct recipient and had redacted the majority of documents disclosed however the address was missed on one document.
• 30 May 2014 London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. An undertaking to respond in a quicker and more effective manner to losses of personal data has been signed by London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. This follows an investigation into the loss of a file containing medical data relating to eleven children, which discovered that although the council knew where the file was, it had still not been retrieved five months later.
• 27 May 2014 Student Loans Company. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by the Student Loans Company Limited following an investigation by the ICO into three separate incidents involving the disclosure of documents to the incorrect recipients.  The investigation identified that whilst checking procedures were in place documents containing sensitive personal data were subject to fewer checks than those containing less sensitive data.
• 16 May 2014 Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed November 2013.
• 12 May 2014 The Moray Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by The Moray Council. This follows an investigation into the loss of a file containing adoption meeting papers at a café in the local area.
• 25 April 2014 Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. This follows an investigation whereby a social worker had left a case file containing sensitive personal data at a client’s home. The case file outlined child welfare concerns and disclosed the identity of the source.
• 15 April 2014 Wirral Borough Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Wirral Borough Council after social services records containing sensitive personal information were sent to the wrong addresses on two occasions. The information, which was disclosed in February and April 2013, included sensitive personal details relating to two families living in the borough and in one case included details of a criminal offence committed by one of the family members.
• 15 April 2014 Wokingham Borough Council. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Wokingham Borough Council, after sensitive social services records relating to the care of a young child were lost. The information, which had been requested by a family member, was lost after the delivery driver left the documents outside the requester’s home in August 2013.
• 11 April 2014 Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed September 2013.
• 28 March 2014 Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. This follows an investigation by the ICO into a series of fax related incidents which revealed that the Trust had a very low attendance rate for Information Governance training.
• 20 March 2014 Disclosure and Barring Service. An undertaking to comply with the first data protection principle has been signed by the Disclosure and Barring Service.
• 14 March 2014 Cardiff City Council. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Cardiff City Council has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed August 2013.
• 13 March 2014 Neath Care. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by Neath Care. This follows the disclosure of ten client care service delivery plans which were found by a member of the public in the street. The care service delivery plans related to elderly people and contained confidential client information on matters such as personal care, medication and key safe numbers.
• 26 February 2014 Treasury Solicitor’s Department. An undertaking to comply with the seventh data protection principle has been signed by the Treasury Solicitor’s Department. The data controller agreed to put measures in place to ensure the security of the personal data it handles.
• 24 January 2014 Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has appropriately addressed the actions agreed in its undertaking signed September 2013.
• 10 January 2014 Northern Health and Social Care Trust. A follow up has been completed to provide an assurance that Northern Health and

Prosecution

• 13 November 2014 Harkanwarjit Dhanju. A former pharmacist working for West Sussex Primary Care Trust has been prosecuted for unlawfully accessing the medical records of family members, work colleagues and local health professionals. Harkanwarjit Dhanju was fined £1000, ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge and £608.30 prosecution costs.
• 11 November 2014 Matthew Devlin. Company director Matthew Devlin has been fined after illegally accessing one of Everything Everywhere’s (EE) customer databases. Devlin used details of when customers were due a mobile phone upgrade to target them with services offered by his own telecoms companies.
• 22 August 2014 Dalvinder Singh. A Birmingham banker has been fined after he admitted reading his colleagues bank accounts. He worked in Santander UK’s suspicious activity reporting unit at their Leicester office. His role investigating allegations of money laundering meant he was able to view customer accounts. But he used his access to look at eleven colleagues’ accounts, to learn how much their salaries and bonuses were.
• 06 August 2014 A Plus Recruitment Limited. A recruitment company has been prosecuted today at Doncaster Magistrates Court for failing to notify with the ICO. A Plus Recruitment Limited pleaded guilty and was fined £300 and ordered to pay costs of £489.95 and a victim surcharge of £30.
• 05 August 2014 1st Choice Properties (SRAL). A property lettings and management company has been prosecuted for failing to notify with the ICO at Uxbridge Magistrates Court today. 1st Choice Properties (SRAL) was convicted in the defendant’s absence and fined £500, ordered to pay costs of £815.08 and a victim surcharge of £50.
• 15 July 2014 Jayesh Shah. The owner of a marketing company trading as Vintels has been prosecuted for failing to notify the ICO of changes to his notification at Willesden Magistrates Court today. Jayesh Shah was fined £4000, ordered to pay costs of £2703 and a £400 victim surcharge.
• 14 July 2014 Hayden Nash Consultants. A recruitment company has been prosecuted for failing to notify with the ICO at Reading Magistrates Court today. Hayden Nash Consultants entered a guilty plea and was fined £200, ordered to pay costs of £489.85 and a £20 victim surcharge.
• 10 July 2014 Stephen Siddell. A former branch manager for Enterprise Rent-A-Car has been prosecuted for unlawfully stealing the records of almost two thousand customers before selling them to a claims management company. Stephen Siddell was fined £500, ordered to pay a £50 victim surcharge and £264.08 in prosecution costs.
• 09 July 2014 Global Immigration Consultants Limited. A legal advice company has been prosecuted for failing to notify with the ICO at Manchester Magistrates Court today. Global Immigration Consultants Limited entered a guilty plea and was fined £300, ordered to pay costs of £260.18 and a £30 victim surcharge.
• 06 June 2014 Darren Anthony Bott. The director of a pensions review company has been prosecuted for failing to notify with the ICO. Darren Anthony Bott of Allied Union Ltd entered a guilty plea and was fined £400, ordered to pay costs of £218.82 and a £40 victim surcharge.
• 05 June 2014 API Telecom. A telecoms company has been prosecuted by the ICO for failing to comply with an information notice in Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday. The company, API Telecom, entered a guilty plea and was fined £200, ordered to pay full costs of £489.85 and the victim surcharge was imposed.
• 13 May 2014 QR Lettings. A property company has been prosecuted by the ICO for failing to notify under section 17 of the Data Protection Act. QR Lettings pleaded guilty at a hearing on 13 May 2014 at Birkenhead Magistrates Court. The company was fined £250, ordered to pay costs of £260 and a £30 victim surcharge.
• 25 April 2014 Barry Spencer. A man who ran a company that tricked organisations into revealing personal details about customers has been ordered to pay a total of £20,000 in fines and prosecution costs, as well as a confiscation order of over £69,000 at a hearing at Isleworth Crown Court.
• 25 April 2014 Allied Union Limited. A pension review company has been prosecuted by the ICO for failing to notify under section 17 of the Data Protection Act.  Allied Union Limited pleaded guilty at a hearing on 25 April 2014 at Swansea Magistrates Court. The company was fined £400, ordered to pay costs of £338.11 and a victim surcharge of £40.
• 25 March 2014 Help Direct UK Limited. A financial advisors has been prosecuted by the ICO for failing to notify under section 17 of the Data Protection Act. Help Direct UK Limited pleaded guilty at a hearing on 25 March 2014 at Swansea Magistrates Court. The company was fined £250, ordered to pay costs of £248.83 and a victim surcharge of £25.
• 12 March 2014 Boilershield Limited. A plumbing company and its director have been prosecuted by the ICO for failing to notify under section 17 of the Data Protection Act. Boilershield Limited and its director, Mohammod Ali, pleaded guilty at a hearing on 12 March 2014 at Bromley Magistrates. They were both fined £1,200, ordered to pay costs of £196.87 and a victim surcharge of £120.
• 11 March 2014 Becoming Green (UK) Ltd. A Cardiff-based green energy deal company, Becoming Green (UK) Ltd, has been prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office after failing to notify the ICO that it handled customers’ personal data. The offence was uncovered when the company was being monitored following concerns about compliance.
• 24 January 2014 ICU Investigations Limited. Six men who were part of a company that tricked organisations into revealing personal

Enforcements

• 19 November 2014 Grampian Health Board (NHS Grampian). The Information Commissioner’s Office has ordered NHS Grampian to take action to make sure patients’ information is better protected.
• 12 November 2014 Hot House Roof Company. The ICO has issued an enforcement notice against Hot House Roof Company ordering them to stop making nuisance marketing calls. The company had failed to honour suppression requests and repeatedly made calls to a number of individuals despite their being TPS registered.
• 21 October 2014 Abdul Tayub. The Information Commissioner’s Office has served Abdul Tayub with an enforcement notice after he was found to be sending unsolicited marketing mail by electronic means without providing information as to his identity and without prior consent.
• 12 September 2014 All Claims Marketing Limited. The Information Commissioner’s Office has served All Claims Marketing Limited with an enforcement notice after the company was found to be sending unsolicited marketing mail by electronic means without providing information as to its identity.
• 03 September 2014 Winchester and Deakin Limited. The Information Commissioner’s Office has served Carmarthen-based direct marketing company Winchester and Deakin Limited (also trading as Rapid Legal and Scarlet Reclaim) with an enforcement notice ordering them to stop making nuisance calls. The move comes after an investigation discovered they had made unsolicited marketing calls to people who had registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) or who had asked not to be contacted.
• 16 June 2014 DC Marketing Limited. The ICO has issued an enforcement notice against DC Marketing Limited after the company made hundreds of nuisance calls to try and get people to purchase solar panels partly financed by the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund. An ICO investigation found the company also frequently gave a false name to avoid detection.
• 29 May 2014 Wolverhampton City Council. The ICO has issued an enforcement notice against Wolverhampton City Council, following an investigation into a data breach at the council that occurred in January 2012. The breach was caused when a social worker, who had not received data protection training, sent out a report to a former service user detailing their time in care. However, the social worker failed to remove highly sensitive information about the recipient’s sister that should not have been included.
• 03 April 2014 Amber UPVC Fabrications Ltd (T/A Amber Windows). The ICO has issued an enforcement notice against Amber Windows ordering them not to call subscribers who have previously told them not to ring or subscribers who have not consented to them calling and have registered the number with the TPS for at least the required 28 days.
• 10 March 2014 Isisbyte Limited. The ICO has served an enforcement notice on Isisbyte Limited after the company was found to be making unsolicited marketing calls without providing information as to their identity.
• 10 March 2014 SLM Connect Limited. The ICO has served an enforcement notice on SLM Connect Limited after the company was found to be making unsolicited marketing calls without providing information as to their identity.

Who has breached the Data Protection Act in 2012? Find the complete list here.

Who breached the Data Protection Act in 2013? Find the complete list here.