Waltham Forest Council data breach stemmed from printing error

A recent Waltham Forest Council data breach incident was reportedly caused by a simple “printing error”, which is a cause for alarm.

It’s understood that some P60 forms sent out to pensioners accidentally included the personal information for other people on the reverse side of their form. The number of people who may have been affected in the batch that went wrong could be more than 3,000.

A lot of the claims for compensation that we take forward stem from simple errors that can inadvertently lead to a catastrophic breach of data protection laws. With councils and local authority agencies storing and processing a huge amount of data for people – data that can be incredibly personal and sensitive – this kind of breach is worrying.

What has been said about the Waltham Forest Council data breach incident?

It’s understood that letters have been sent to the people affected by the Waltham Forest Council data breach incident, and part of the letter confirms what has happened as follows:

“Due to an error with our printing partners a small number of these were printed with information on the reverse relating to another customer. We sincerely apologise for this error.”

A spokesperson for the council said:

“We were made aware on Thursday May 23 of an error by our printing partners affecting one batch of our pensioners’ statements. We immediately investigated and isolated the issue, and have implemented additional sign off procedures to prevent this happening again.”

What can people who are affected by the incident do?

If your personal information has been leaked to someone else as a result of the Waltham Forest Council data breach printing error incident, you may be able to make a claim for compensation.

People are entitled to take legal action and claim damages caused by the distress of the loss of control of information. When it comes to financial data, the distress can be significant, and people can be at risk of fraud and crime.

For free, no-obligation advice about this incident, or any other form of data breach where your personal information has been exposed, please don’t hesitate to contact the team.