It is reported that 5,000 radiology images taken at University Hospitals Dorset were accidentally deleted. This occurred during their process of archiving on or around July/August this year. The lost data includes: 214 clinical mammograms ( X-Rays to test for breast cancer) test or duplicate images some scans from different hospitals. How did the incident occur? The radiology images were taken during a period in 2019 and were deleted during the hospital’s process of archiving the documents. The images were [...]

On 3 August 2022, Christopher O’Brien, a former health adviser employed by South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust,  pleaded guilty at Coventry Magistrates’ Court to unlawfully accessing patient records. What data has been breached and how? Between June and December 2019, he accessed the medical records of 14 patients. The patients were known to him but the records were not accessed lawfully as the patients were not under his care. His actions amount to a breach of section 170 of the [...]

City College Norwich revealed that the information of hundreds of applicants has been breached. This ocurred when their details were sent by email to a parent by mistake. The breach occurred in August 2021, while the parent of an applicant was corresponding with the college by email. The parent was sent a spreadsheet which contained details of hundreds of the college’s applicants. What information was breached? The spreadsheet contained the following details: Names Telephone numbers Postal and email addresses Other [...]

Healthcare services across the United Kingdom process the most sensitive data of millions of people. Medical information is classed as special category data, which needs more protection because it is sensitive. This means that the NHS, your GP or any other organisation handling special category data must process this data lawfully, fairly and transparently and in accordance with both Article 6 and Article 9 UKGDPR. Whilst there is no doubt that following the Corona Virus the UK healthcare system is [...]

Bedfordshire Council (“the Council”) has been severely criticised for breaching the data of 100 people with special educational needs (“SEND”). The data breach seems to have happened on Monday 11 May 2022, when the Council was responding to a Freedom of Information Act request. The information was published on a website called whatdotheyknow.com and was supposed to include only statistical details. Instead, as a result of human error, the uploaded information included names, disability or special needs details and school [...]

Clinical research company Lakeside Healthcare Research, has been carrying out trials for a new type of COVID vaccination (Valneva) at 27 sites in the UK. At the Corby study site, the research team contacted the participants via email to invite them for a booster vaccine. But the email sent to each participant mistakenly included the email address of all the participants. Unfortunately, Corby’s research team did not use the BCC function when sending the email. A participant in the study [...]