LBWF’s glaring failure to obey official – and mandatory – transparency rules: a new twist, as evidence emerges of a major data breach

Two previous posts on this blog (see links) have explored LBWF’s compliance with the mandatory Local Government Transparency Code, the document which specifies the 14 categories of information that all councils must publish, and at what intervals.

The major finding that emerges is that in many cases, and for some years, LBWF has failed to act as it should.

But it’s recently become evident that even where LBWF has regularly published the required information, this has not necessarily gone smoothly.

Indeed, in the case of the requirement to publish a quarterly listing of all expenditure over £500, what’s been provided is apparently so flawed that it has had to be withdrawn.

In answer to a Freedom of Information request LBWF provides the following explanation:

‘The London Borough of Waltham Forest transferred to a new business software application in September 2023. This supplied new reports. At the test stage the Transparency reports looked correct working on the data we had, but in the live system further checks were carried out and it was discovered the data had misaligned and included confidential data which should not be published, for example personal care packages. This was reported to system support for investigation. This is not a single run report, and the gathering of data is complex. A Transparency Reconciliation Report has now been produced and is being tested. Once there is assurance the data is correct the website will publish the Transparency information’.

So, translating into plain English, LBWF claims that it has discovered a significant personal data breach, and is currently trying to put it right.

It will be interesting to establish whether, as is its duty, LBWF has reported itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Regardless of this detail, however, there is no getting away from the fact that the whole episode reeks of incompetence, and reinforces the impression that some senior officers in the Town Hall have taken their eyes off the ball.