Local authorities lose sensitive personal information nearly four times a day in a huge escalation of data breaches since 2011, freedom of information requests suggest.
Councils reported 4,236 data breaches between April 2011 and April 2014, compared with 1,035 breaches between July 2008 and July 2011, according to a report by Big Brother Watch, the privacy campaigner.
Of the data breaches in the three years to April 2014, one council employee was convicted, 39 resigned and 50 were dismissed, the report found.
Emma Carr, director of Big Brother Watch, said that some cases showed “shockingly lax attitudes”.
She added: “For so many children and young people to have had their personal information compromised is deeply disturbing. With only a tiny fraction of staff being disciplined or dismissed, this raises the question of how seriously local councils take protecting the privacy of the public.”
In one case, a social worker from Lewisham council left a bundle of papers on a train that included child protection reports and information on sex offenders linked to cases involving ten children. The social worker resigned.
In another case, a worker at Cheshire East council received a warning after using CCTV to watch part of a colleague’s wedding.