Council warned by ICO over laptop losses

 

Gallery

By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 23 Jun 2009 at 15:09

The boss of Manchester City Council has been forced to sign a document promising to obey the Data Protection Act after the loss of two unencrypted laptops.

Neither of the two machines stolen from the Town Hall were locked away, and neither had any form of protection to stop unauthorised access to data.

One of the laptops contained the personal details of 1,754 employees of local schools, including teachers and teaching assistants.

"We urge all councils and their executive teams to take responsibility for treating data protection as a corporate governance issue affecting the entire organisation," said Sally-Anne Poole, head of enforcement and investigations at the ICO. "They have to make sure that safeguarding the personal information of their staff is embedded in their organisational culture."

Following the loss, the ICO forced Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive of Manchester City Council, to sign an undertaking promising to ensure all laptops and other removable devices are encrypted and either secured to desks or locked away.

"Failure to meet the terms of the Undertaking is likely to lead to enforcement action," said an ICO statement.