Council refers itself to ICO after publishing personal data of 600 local plan respondents

The data breach occurred when the council submitted its draft local plan for review late last month.

The local authority had published a series of documents online, including a spreadsheet which detailed responses to the local authority's consultation on the draft plan and contained "hidden sheets" listing respondents' personal details.

A spokesperson for South Gloucestershire Council said: "Alongside the plan itself, we are required to publish the consultation responses received so that they can be considered by the Government's planning inspectors. These are published alongside the names of individuals and organisations who made the submission.

"When this information was received, personal data, which varied from submission to submission, but potentially included names, contact details and addresses, were logged on a spreadsheet.

"For working purposes, this data was moved to a hidden worksheet that was not visible. Unfortunately, when the documents were published, these worksheets were not deleted beforehand as they should have been, meaning that data was accessible to anyone who found and opened the hidden sheets."

The details of 625 respondents to the Local Plan consultation were published, according to the council.

This included information from members of the public and of representative groups who had given personal contact details.

The council said it has written to notify all of the potentially affected individuals and organisations to apologise, and that it had referred the matter to the ICO.

"All measures to avoid any similar breach in future will be taken, in addition to following any guidance received from the ICO in due course," the council added.

Adam Carey