Apology after data breach by Falkirk Council

Council officials have apologised for a data breach which occurred only days after new laws to protect people's details came into place.

Bo’ness mum Catherine Sneddon was one of hundreds of parents and carers across the district who received an email from Falkirk Council last Wednesday, May 30 regarding details of free school meals.

The mother-of-two was horrified to discover that not only was her email address visible but that of everyone else the local authority had sent the email to.

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She said: “This information is confidential and I couldn’t believe that all these details were listed.”

A Falkirk Council spokesperson said: “We became aware of a data breach last week which was caused by human error.

“The incident was immediately reported to the Council’s Data Protection Officer and an email of apology was sent to everyone involved.

“After an internal investigation, the incident was reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office and we await their response. We apologise for this breach and we will look to learn from this mistake.”

An Information Commissioner’s Office spokesperson said: “We are aware of an incident involving Falkirk Council and are looking into the details.”