http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/g ... _in_error/Police leak details in error3:23pm Sunday 18th April 2010
PERSONAL details of 10,000 people applying for Gwent Police clearance in Criminal Records Bureau checks were sent to a journalist by mistake, the force admitted.
A senior member of staff has now been suspended and a top-level inquiry into how this happened is under way.
Journalist Chris Williams, who works for a security news website The Register, says he was sent a spreadsheet which was not encrypted or password protected and included people's full names, dates of birth and whether a disclosure had been made under the CRB system - whether the applicants being vetted for work at places like schools and hospitals had a previous conviction, arrest or allegation pending against them.
He had previously made two unrelated applications for information to the force using the Freedom of Information Act, and says the force's software had remembered his e-mail address, copying him in on a document which was being sent to five Gwent Police officials.
He said the document, sent out in February but which he did not open until months later when another Gwent Police e-mail found its way into his inbox, contained the result of CRB checks going back to 2001 and identified 863 people as having disclosures against them.
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