The birth family used the information in an attempt to get in touch with the child

Jun 6, 2013 09:30 GMT  ·  By

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has fined the Halton Borough Council in Cheshire with £70,000 ($107,000 / €82,000) for sending the details of adoptive parents to a child’s birth family.

The incident occurred on May 25, 2012, when an employee of the council sent a letter about an adopted child to the birth mother. What the employee didn’t notice was the fact that the letter contained details of the adoptive parents’ address.

The data breach might have gone by unnoticed, but the child’s grandparents were actually trying to obtain access to their grandchild, so they used to address in the letter to write to the adoptive parents.

The ICO concluded that the council breached the Data Protection Act because it failed to establish a clear policy and process to make sure that such correspondence was properly verified before being sent out.

The council has implemented measures to make sure that such incidents are avoided in the future.