Derby council issues statement over council tax and benefits data breach

People using Derby City Council’s some online services could have been affected by a data breach. The council has issued a public statement after being made aware of a data handling incident related to financial services software supplier, Capita.

Capita supplies the council with a system that supports council tax and benefits services. The incident, which has also affected several local authorities across the country, relates to data collected in early 2021.

Although the city council has not said how many people could be involved or what was affected by the breach, it is understood that the company has told one of the other councils impacted – Colchester City Council – that personal bank account details had not been compromised.

Read more: Shoplifter banned from TK Maxx says ‘I deserve to pay what I owe’

Alison Parkin, Derby City Council director of financial services, said: “We’re very disappointed to hear about the incident involving one of our suppliers, Capita. We take matters of information security very seriously and have voluntarily reported this incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights.

“As a council, our priority is to protect individuals’ privacy rights and to ensure that personal data is protected. We have had confirmation from Capita that the affected records were secured as soon as they became aware of the incident. We know this incident will cause concern, and we would like to apologise to our customers. We will be contacting affected customers individually, you do not need to contact us.”

Ms Parkin said that the council would continue to work with Capita and the ICO to understand the cause of the data breach. She added: “And also how to prevent it from happening again in the future. As part of our investigation, we will also be taking the opportunity to review the arrangements with Capita. We thank you for your patience whilst we investigate the matter thoroughly.”