CW+ Premium Content/Computer Weekly

Lawyers and data protection experts have criticised the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for limiting its enforcement action against Thames Valley Police (TVP) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), despite serious data protection failings that placed the lives of witnesses and prisoners at risk. While TVP was reprimanded for disclosing information that led to “suspected criminals learning the address of a witness”, the MoJ was reprimanded after “14 bags of confidential documents” were left in an unsecure holding area of an undisclosed prison. In the case of TVP, the ICO said data about the witness ended up in the hands of suspected criminals when an officer responded to a request by an unnamed housing authority without properly redacting the information or following established information-sharing policies. This resulted in the witness being forced to move house, although it is unclear from the reprimand how the information was passed from the housing authority to the suspected criminals. The ICO has since confirmed to ...