Secret Brighton and Hove council report put online (From The Argus)

Secret Brighton and Hove council report put online

11:18am Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter

Blundering Brighton and Hove council officers published confidential papers online.

A commercially sensitive report was available for anyone to view after Brighton and Hove City Council uploaded it late last week.

The papers included assessments of funding bids, submitted to the council by charities in the city, for £1.8million.

The document – a 13-page report – has ‘confidential’ written across every page.

According to the council, the information should have remained secret under “paragraphs 8 & 10 of schedule 12A, Part 1, to the Local Government Act 1972”.

This refers to the authority’s need to protect commercial confidentiality.

The papers were available to view until The Argus spotted the error on Monday evening and alerted the council, which immediately removed it from online.

Yesterday a spokesman from the council admitted the error. He said: “A report containing commercially sensitive information relating to adult social care and health services in the city was accidentally published on our website late last week.

“The information was removed from our website as soon as the problem was pointed out to us.

“We would like to make it clear that no personal information relating to health or adult social care clients was disclosed.

“The problem was simply down to human error, and we would like to apologise to anyone who feels they were affected.”

The report was released ahead of a meeting of the Joint Commissioning Board of the council, scheduled for October 22. It had been written by Denise D’Souza, director of adult social care.

It includes the council’s assessment of mental health charity MIND in Brighton and Hove, Sussex Central YMCA, National Schizophrenia Fellowship and Sussex Oakleaf Association, which is a day service for people with personality disorders.

The board is expected to approve the allocation of £1.8million at the meeting.