SLC rapped over data breach

Three students had their details disclosed to other loan applicants in 2012, the Information Commissioner’s Office has revealed.

According to the SLC, the mistake was down to “human error” when applications for disabled students’ allowances were being manually assessed.

The SLC has apologised for the error and said it would put new checks in place to stop this happening again.

Stephen Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, said: “We’ve spoken with the company and made clear that changes need to be made, and a formal undertaking is now in place.”

An SLC spokeswoman said: “When we realised our mistake, we immediately contacted the person or organisation the information had been sent to, to apologise for our mistake and to make sure the details were deleted. We also reported the breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office and will continue to keep them updated.”

She added: “SLC takes our responsibilities seriously to protect customer data under the Data Protection Act. We have put in place additional quality checks and are confident these will prevent this from happening again. We are also investing significantly in new technology and systems to improve our service to customers.”

In 2012 the SLC received around 50,000 applications for disabled students’ allowances.

david.matthews@tsleducation.com