City council inadvertently discloses data on children to taxi firms

Leicester City Council has inadvertently disclosed data about children to taxi firms, with the error occurring when the local authority contacted the 27 taxi operators with which it has contracts and mistakenly sent the entire database rather than the relevant information.

A spokesperson said: “We regularly share passenger information with 27 taxi companies that have contracts with us. Unfortunately on this occasion the whole database of journeys was issued.

“However, as this data is routinely shared with these companies, we don’t consider that anyone has been put at risk as a result of this mistake. “

The council said all the firms were bound in their contracts by confidentiality and data protection rules and had confirmed they had deleted the email as the council requested

Senior managers have launched “a thorough investigation to identify how this happened and to take steps to prevent a further reoccurrence”, the council said.

Mark Smulian