Victims charity calls for changes after police data breach

The head of a charity that supports sexual abuse victims said changes had to be made after personal details of 1,230 were accidentally released by police.

Norfolk and Suffolk police forces said the personal information was included in Freedom of Information (FOI) responses due to a "technical issue".

It included descriptions of offences including sexual and domestic assaults.

The forces have apologised for the breach.

It is the second time Suffolk Police breached victims' personal details within nine months after names and addresses of victims could be seen on the force's website.

Fiona Ellis, the chief executive of Ipswich-based sexual abuse charity, Survivors in Transition, said: "It cannot go on and I think the police have absolutely recognised the seriousness of that.

"I'm reassured that this has been taken seriously, they have already made changes to policy and process; it simply cannot go on, there's no doubt about that and I don't think anybody is in denial about that."

Police said the information was attached to 18 responses to FOI requests from journalists for crime statistics issued by the forces between April 2021 and March 2022.

They said of those affected 372 were from Suffolk and the rest were from Norfolk.

The data included personal identifiable information on victims, witnesses and suspects relating to a range of offences including sexual offences, domestic incidents, assaults, hate crime and thefts.

Ms Ellis added: "It is worrying, it is serious, everybody gets all of that, what we need to focus on now is how we support those and reassure victims and witnesses through the next six weeks while the police let people know what has happened and to what extent their data has been impacted."

Dame Vera Baird, the former Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales, said she found it "very worrying", particularly for victims of sexual offences who should have lifelong anonymity under law.

"It's terrifying for women and men to think if they have said, on the understanding their name will never be made public, that they will give evidence about what happened to them... it's quite frightening if their identities are then made known," she said.

The forces said the data would not have been "immediately obvious" and anyone who had received the FOI response would have "needed to know how to access the information".

They said there was "nothing to suggest" it had been accessed by "anyone outside of policing".

Suffolk's temporary assistant chief constable, Eamonn Bridger, who led the investigation, said "immediate steps" were taken to react and remove the data from the public domain.

He said: "I recognise the seriousness of this incident and take the opportunity to apologise that this data breach has occurred.

"I deeply regret any concern that it has caused to any member of the public."

All those affected are expected to be contacted by letter, phone or in person by the end of September.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it was investigating the matter.

Tim Passmore, the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Suffolk, said he needed to understand "how on earth this could have happened" and "no stone will be left unturned to get to the bottom of this".

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