ICO issues reprimand to Ministry of Justice after adoption family details given to birth father

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been issued a reprimand after the details of parties in an adoption process were disclosed to the birth father, despite a court judge directing that he should be excluded from the proceedings.

It was noted that the father posed a risk to the family concerned.

The Information Commissioner (ICO) has recommended that the MoJ should take steps to “ensure its compliance with the UK GDPR”.

The decision notice found the mistake was due to the removal of the cover sheet from the front of the adoption file, which the MoJ stated was a practice that had been developed locally, and “did not reflect national practice”.

Staff members at the unnamed court with responsibility for checking the file prior to disclosure had then failed to check the contents.

The ICO noted that when parties in an adoption case are to be excluded from notifications, they are usually removed from the electronic court system.

“However in this case the Judge had not issued such an instruction. The MoJ also stated there was no set procedure for court communications to be recorded”, said the commissioner.

It was concluded that the incident occurred as a result of a combination of “unauthorised local process and the failure to abide by national practice requirements”.

Issuing a reprimand in relation to the infringements of article 5(1)(f) of the UK GDPR, the ICO also “welcomed” the remedial steps taken by the MoJ following the incident.

It noted that the unnamed court “has now amended its local process to bring it in line with national practice and that the cover sheet is no longer removed when the file is placed into Celebration filing”.

The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.