DPA Breaches - Central Government edition

A little while back I asked all local councils how many data protection breaches they had.  It was an interesting one because it showed that Data Protection (DPA) is taken very seriously. It was also interesting how high the number was, in some cases.  At the same time it was amazing that there were a few cases where the answer was zero.  That was amazing because, it's easy to break Data Protection and to have NONE shows one of two things; a total paranoia for data protection OR a complete disregard for reporting it (I assume the former rather than the latter).  So, why bring this up here?  Because I asked all the central government departments how many times they breached Data Protection.

I did change the question on this one.  Rather than simple ask all the government departments how many times they breached DPA I asked them a rather specific question which was:

Please can you tell me how many times you have had to register a Data Protection Breach with the ICO since 01/01/15 until time of writing?

The reason for this was two fold. One, I thought that if I asked who many times they broke DPA it would be too wide for them.  Secondly, I asked about the Information Commissioner's office purely because these are MAJOR breaches (Not just sending the wrong email to the wrong person).

So what are the answers?  Here we go!

Name of Department	Amount of times
Her Majesty’s Inspector of Education	0
Department of Energy and Climate Change	0
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	0
Department for Communities and Local Government	4
Export Credits Guarantee Department	0
Department of Health	0
Department for Work and Pensions	2
Department for Transport	1
Department for International Development	0
Department for Education	2
Department for Culture, Media and Sport	0
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills	2
Cabinet Office	5
Attorney General’s Office	0
Her Majesty’s Inspector of Education
Home Office	0
Government Equalities Office
Her Majesty’s Treasury	0
Foreign and Commonwealth Office	2
Ministry of Defence	0
Prime Minister Office
Ministry of Justice	5

Now this doesn't give the whole story.  For example the department for work and pensions had two but one of those was for the loss of 1100 records (including Names, address, DOB, NI number).  When I said these are major, I mean it.  Was quite impressed by the DWP simple because they said it was available to the public BUT they also sent me their report to make sure that I could see it. Great stuff, eh?

I would like to also state that I have read a LOT of reports because of this…  One of the most detailed was the Department for International Development who also showed how many days absence have been had and even their water levels.  That pretty good detail, eh?