Gwent Police is confirming that in February this year (2010) an email attachment was mistakenly sent by one of our senior staff members to Chris Williams a journalist at The Register web site. The attachment contained some basic personal details of 10006 people who had made Criminal Records Bureau applications to the Force.
Deputy Chief Constable Carmel Napier commented:
“We are very grateful to Mr Williams and The Register who alerted us to this mistake on Friday 09 April, which was caused by human error. As a Force we have strict policies and procedures in place relating to Data Security but regrettably these were not followed on this occasion. We are very sorry that we have on this occasion failed to meet our own high standards.
The personal details contained in the attachment were names, dates of birth, title of post applied for and some administrative details relating to the progress of the application.
The Force has acted quickly and decisively to protect the public:
- Gwent Police officers have met with the journalist, who has with his company, acted very professionally and destroyed the information in their presence
- The Force has commenced an internal investigation under the supervision of the Independent Police Complaints Commission
- The Force voluntarily notified the relevant regulatory bodies (Information Commissioner, Criminal Records Bureau, Home Office, the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Gwent Police Authority)
- The individual staff member involved has been suspended from their post pending the outcome of the internal inquiry
- A group has been established, led by Chief Officers, who will personally ensure that lessons learnt are implemented immediately
Gwent Police are satisfied that the public and their personal data are not at risk, however, in view of any concerns members of the public may continue to have, we have set up a dedicated helpline to offer further reassurance. This will be staffed from 4pm until 8pm today (Friday April 16th) and each day until Friday 23rd April, 2010 between the hours of 8am-8pm. The helpline number is 01495 745430.”
The Chair of Gwent Police Authority, Mrs Cilla Davies added:
“The Police Authority has been kept fully informed throughout and is satisfied that the Chief Constable’s immediate and decisive action is dealing with this unfortunate situation appropriately.”
