London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Infringements of personal data in UK court proceedings have rushed to more than 10,000 in a year, with the dramatic growth being blamed on new digital systems in justice.
Court attendants and lawyers have been mistakenly uploading personal and sensitive information to the false case files on the Common Platform, a cornerstone of the Ministry of Justice’s reform of the criminal courts. The HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) annual report has now indicated that the number of data breaches has increased from 2,682 recorded in 2020/21 to 10,225 between April 2023 and March 2024.
How Are Third Parties Contributing to the Rise in Data Breaches?
The body, which contains the criminal and civil courts of England and Wales, stated it has taken responsibility for 45 percent of the year’s breaches, while 55 percent were the responsibility of “third parties”. “For those where we were not at blame, this was primarily due to official third parties uploading information incorrectly onto our system, following the opening of new case management systems such as the Common Platform,” stated the report.
What Measures Are Being Implemented to Prevent Future Data Breaches?
“We continue to contend with all parties to put measures in position to mitigate these issues. For example, we have executed several IT solutions to minimise the impact, including the ability of our Service Centre staff to release incorrect documentation uploaded by professional users.”
It said there has been a “general trend” since September 2023 of fewer mistakes being made by professional court users – such as lawyers and police officers – while errors by court staff have been tackled with “face-to-face training”. HMCTS has to refer significant data breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office, and it has promised to “learn lessons and continually improve our systems”.
The annual report also indicates that, among the data breaches, were happenings where confidential home addresses were leaked in a divorce battle and a separate legal fight over a child, and the surname and address of adoptive parents were passed on in mistake to the birth mother during a court battle, and the address of a defendant in an illegal case was given out to a third-party by mistake.
How Is HMCTS Addressing the Increase in Data Breaches?
A HMCTS spokesperson stated: “The majority of these happenings are a direct result of incorrect information being uploaded to the design by third parties – not by HMCTS. We accept and handle millions of pieces of exposed data safely and securely every year and take any breaches extremely seriously.”