Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
22nd March 2023 Issue no. 648

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Welsh police force fined for sexual abuse case data breach

The ICO has issued South Wales Police with a monetary penalty of £160,000 after the force lost a video recording which formed part of the evidence in a sexual abuse case. DVDs containing film of an interview with a victim, who had been sexually abused as a child, were unencrypted and left in a desk drawer in a police station and then lost during an office move.

Although the DVDs were in a secure part of a police station, South Wales Police had no specific force-wide policy to deal with the storage of victim and witness interviews. Due to lack of training the data breach went unreported for nearly two years.

Anne Jones, Assistant Commissioner for Wales said: “Without any doubt we would expect a professional police force, in a position of trust, dealing with this type of highly sensitive information from victims and witnesses on a daily basis to have robust procedures to keep track of the personal data in their care.

“The organisation has failed to take all appropriate measures against the unauthorised processing and accidental loss of personal data.”

1st July 2015