Andrew Johnson reports:

The [Islington] Town Hall has agreed to pay compensation totalling £43,000 to 14 residents whose personal details, including mental health problems and sexual orientation, were leaked in two disastrous data breaches last year.

A full written apology will also be sent to the claimants, who have been awarded between £1,000 and £5,000 each.

In April 2012 the details of 51 residents who had complained about anti-social behaviour on the Andover Estate – including names and home addresses – were passed to 10 of the perpetrators they had complained about along with court injunctions.

Some people had to be rehomed as a result.

[See previous coverage on this breach on Islington Gazette – Dissent]

Then confidential details of more than 2,000 people were accidentally published on a website in response to a Freedom of Information request. The information included people’s names, addresses, relationship status, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference and in some cases medical information such as mental health problems.

[See previous coverage of this second breach from the ICO here – Dissent]

Islington has already been fined £70,000 by the Information Commissioner for this breach [see monetary penalty notice – Dissent], meaning the cost to the council is already more than £100,000. The Commissioner is yet to issue a fine for the earlier data breach.

Read more on Islington Tribune.