Council reprimanded for disclosing new address of data subject to ex-partner alleged to have perpetrated domestic abuse

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has reprimanded Charnwood Borough Council after the local authority disclosed the new address of a data subject to an ex-partner who was an alleged perpetrator of domestic abuse.

A letter detailing the new address was sent by the council to the previous address she shared with her ex-partner. The letter was later confirmed to have been opened and read by the ex-partner.

The watchdog said the incident had caused significant distress to the data subject and had the potential to result in actual harm.

“In addition, the investigation highlighted that the process to make address changes was not properly communicated to the data subject, and that there was an absence of a written and well communicated process for dealing with correspondence in these sensitive circumstances for staff to use,” the ICO said.

It added that Charnwood had not ensured that all members of staff involved in this incident had received data protection training in the 12 months prior to the incident.

The watchdog urged other organisations to learn lessons from the incident to ensure they are not at risk of making the same mistake. It said they should make sure:

• Alerts are put on files if staff need to be especially vigilant when someone is a vulnerable service user
• A proper process is in place for address changes
• Data protection training is carried out, including refresher training

The ICO said the incident reinforced the call by the Information Commissioner earlier this year for organisations to handle personal information properly to avoid putting victims of domestic abuse at the risk of further danger.

Natasha Longson, ICO Head of Investigations, said: “Vulnerable people need to be able to trust public sector organisations to look after their most sensitive details. We hope other organisations can learn from what went wrong in this case and ensure they know what to do to stop it happening at their organisation.”