Lancashire Constabulary has been fined £70,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) following the discovery of papers containing sensitive information about a 15-year-old girl—together with information about 14 other individuals, including in relation to their criminal convictions—on a Blackpool street.
In July 2011, a member of the public discovered the missing persons report containing the girl's name, age, contact information, sexuality and information about a rape suffered by the girl, and handed it to a local newspaper. It is believed the information fell out of a police car used to attend an incident the day before.
The ICO's investigation found that the removal of sensitive personal information from police stations was not recorded, secure bags were not provided for the storage of this information and that officers did not receive training about protecting hard copy documents outside the police station.
