Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breach – Compensation Claims Guide
You may be able to claim compensation if you have evidence that your personal information was unfairly compromised, causing a data breach due to a third party failing to protect it sufficiently. Fair processing of personal data doesn’t just revolve around how a data controller collects your data but also how it keeps it safe and secure. This is why you may be able to claim for a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council data breach.
Local Authority Data Protection Compensation Claim
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough council data breach claims guide
This guide will answer such important questions as:
- What data protection legislation can I refer to in order to see if I can claim?
- How can a subject access request help me?
- How does GDPR and the Data Protection Act confirm my data rights?
- What are instances where you could claim for a data breach at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council?
- What is a data protection officer?
- How can you receive compensation by using our No Win No Fee solicitors to claim for a third party mishandling your data?
Our advisors are available 24/7 to help you with any questions or queries you may have. They can tell you in just a few minutes whether you’re eligible to claim. Please get in touch with us using the details below.
- Call us for free using 0800 073 8804
- Contact us using our online form
- Email us the relevant details at info@legalexpert.co.uk
- Write to us using the live chat found on the right-hand side of your screen
Please read on to learn more about claiming for a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council data protection breach.
Select A Section
- A Guide About When To Claim For A Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breach
- How Many People Are Affected By Data Breaches?
- What Are Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breaches?
- Do Borough Councils Have To Comply With The GDPR?
- What Could Cause Data Breaches?
- Breaches In Social Services And Housing Data Privacy
- When To Make A Data Breach Or Cyber Attack Report
- Suing Local Councils For Breaching Your Data Privacy
- What Could Your Payout Include Damages For?
- Payout Calculator For Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breaches
- Using A No Win No Fee Solicitor To Claim For A Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breach
- Where To Find A Specialist Solicitor
- Talk To A Solicitor For Free
- Similar And Related Articles
- FAQs Data Breach Victims Ask
A Guide About When To Claim For A Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breach
You could be looking to claim due to a third party mishandling your data. You may want to do this because the information breach has negatively affected you, causing psychological issues such as increased stress and anxiety. Examples of a data breach include sending a rent statement to an incorrect address or emailing sensitive social services documentation to the wrong email account.
Regarding how much you could receive, it’s difficult to provide a data breach compensation calculation until we know more about your case. This is because the compensation amount depends on things like how badly the data breach affected you and what kind of information was mishandled.
One important aspect of claiming revolves around timescales. To claim, you need to start the claims process either:
- Within six years
- Or within one year if it involves a breach of human rights
So we can provide you with a reliable compensation estimate or connect you with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors, please call us today to speak to our advisors for free legal advice.
How Many People Are Affected By Data Breaches?
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport performed The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020 to analyse how UK businesses were adapting to growing cybersecurity risks. As part of this, they asked to confirm which organisations have carried out work to formally review the potential cybersecurity risks presented by their immediate suppliers.
Of the businesses that took part in the survey, only 15% of them in total had formally reviewed the potential risks. This goes up to 43% for large firms and 36% for medium firms, but, even then, this still shows that many businesses were either unable or unwilling to take such precautions. Therefore, this could make them more at risk of cybersecurity threats that could compromise the processing of personal data on their system, including yours.
If we look at the figures from the 2021 survey, we can see that cyberattacks are on the rise, with 39% of businesses reporting a breach and 26% of charitable organisations.
As this shows, any business could potentially suffer from a data breach. Therefore, you could claim compensation for a data breach against any type of institution, including a university or college.
What Are Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breaches?
If you’ve suffered a loss due to a data breach at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, it means that your data has been either:
- Destroyed
- Lost
- Accessed
- Or disclosed in an unlawful or unauthorised manner.
You’ll be able to claim for a data breach if the third party in question has done something wrong. This is because successful data breach claims require showing that the third party did not meet their legal obligations as a data controller. So if a data breach occurs and the third party has done everything they’re legally required to do to protect your data, you probably won’t be able to claim.
To learn more about claiming compensation, you can contact us for free legal advice. Simply speak to one of our advisors 24/7 using the phone number above.
Do Borough Councils Have To Comply With The GDPR?
You may be wondering, “What data protection legislation could result in me making a successful claim for a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council data breach?”
GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation, was created in the UK as part of a European-wide initiative to protect the personal data held by companies. As such, this helps clarify your data rights by confirming things like how companies can use your data and what personal data companies are allowed to have on file.
GDPR was introduced into domestic law through The Data Protection Act 2018. Updated legislation about how UK companies can process your personal data can be found in The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc.) Regulations 2020 and The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR).
These pieces of legislation clarify the roles of companies, such as Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and why their data protection process needs to fulfil their legal obligations.
Visit our other guides to see if you can claim for a data breach against other companies such as Uswitch or Equifax. Alternatively, get in touch with us today to discuss the matter further.
What Could Cause Data Breaches?
This section will provide instances in which you could claim for a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council data breach. It will, therefore, provide you with a greater understanding of your ability to claim by showing examples of what a data breach is.
Examples of a third-party data breach you could possibly claim for include:
- Issuing your tenancy agreement and passport details to your previous address when the correct one was provided.
- Providing personal details about you over the phone to someone without passing the required General Data Protection Regulation checks.
- Sending your rent statement, which includes your financial details, to another person’s address.
- Losing personal information due to a cyberattack that could’ve been prevented with sufficient security measures. Due to the potentially sensitive nature of the information held, having online protection is a requirement for processing your data.
- Sending your council tax receipt to another email address.
Breaches In Social Services And Housing Data Privacy
You may also be looking to claim following a data breach at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council social services. Fair processing is important due to the negative impact data breaches can have on people’s lives. Examples of instances where you could potentially claim include:
- Posting tenancy audit documents to the wrong address. If you live in a council home, errors of this nature could affect your living situation.
- Sending social services documentation, like adoption papers, to the wrong address. If, for instance, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council sent these documents to the previous address on file for the child, it could affect your child’s safety.
- Failing to redact personal information when sending an information pack to local landowners.
If you’d like to see if you’re eligible to claim for a data breach at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, please get in touch with our advisors for free legal advice using the phone number at the top of this page.
You can also contact them about claiming for data breaches against banks, like Santander, or supermarkets, such as Tesco too.
When To Make A Data Breach Or Cyber Attack Report
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is an independent authority that upholds people’s information rights in the UK. They review company procedures to make sure businesses are following GDPR sufficiently. Therefore, you can contact the ICO to complain if you’ve been the victim of a data breach. However, they recommend you follow the below process:
- Firstly, contact the third-party responsible for the data breach directly, outlining the reason for your complaint. As a result, they may offer some form of compensation that you feel is satisfactory.
- Secondly, if the response received is not sufficient or you simply haven’t received one at all, you can contact the ICO.
The ICO usually doesn’t investigate concerns if they feel there has been an unjustified or unreasonable delay in you contacting them regarding it. Due to this, please contact them within three months of the last significant contact you’ve had with the third party in question.
However, please bear in mind that you don’t need to make a complaint through the ICO, and you can seek legal advice at any time during this process. As such, if you want to see if you can claim due to a breach caused by insufficient data protection procedures at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, please contact our advisors for free legal advice.
Suing Local Councils For Breaching Your Data Privacy
As mentioned above, you can contact your local council to make a complaint about a data breach. You could complain about a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council data protection breach by:
- Calling them
- Emailing them
- Writing to them
Contacting the data protection officer working at your local council could be the best way to make a complaint. This is because, due to regulations introduced in the Data Protection Act 2018, data protection officers are required to monitor how GDPR is being adhered to within the company.
With this in mind, you can contact any type of company if you’ve suffered from a data breach due to their error. Click here to learn more about claiming against phone providers, such as Three or internet providers, such as Talk Talk.
What Could Your Payout Include Damages For?
GDPR means that you’re able to claim compensation if you have suffered financial or mental damage due to a third party breaking data protection law. When claiming for a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council data breach, there are two potential heads of claim. You can claim:
- Material Damage – This relates to the financial losses you’ve suffered from the data breach. You can claim for losses suffered or potential financial losses you could experience in the future. This is because compromised data can be a permanent issue. You could, for instance, be the victim of identity fraud.
- Non-material Damage – This instead relates to the psychological damage caused by the breach. You can claim emotional distress caused by the loss of privacy. It could, for example, result in you suffering anxiety issues.
The amount you could receive depends on how badly the breach has affected you and what personal data was affected by it.
Payout Calculator For Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breaches
You now don’t need to suffer some form of material damage to make a claim. This means that you can claim for non-material damage, such as suffering from panic attacks or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), without needing to have experienced some form of financial loss as a result of the breach.
This is, in part, due to a ruling from the Court of Appeal, which concluded in the case of Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc [2015] that you can claim compensation for either form of damage. Another court ruling in the case of Gulati and others v MGN Ltd [2015] recommended that the compensation you could receive could be valued in line with personal injury claims.
This is where the guidelines of the Judicial College come in. They have analysed previous claims in relation to psychological damage, comparing the amount received with the degree of damage caused. As such, they’ve been able to build reliable compensation brackets that can give you a greater understanding of what you could receive.
Please see below for a list of psychological injuries and their relevant compensation brackets.
| Type of Injury | Amount of Compensation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | £56,180 to £94,470 | Cases in this bracket cause prolonged symptoms that prevent the person from functioning anywhere near the pre-trauma level. As such, every aspect of their life is significantly affected such as their worklife. |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | £21,730 to £56,180 | The amount received in this bracket depends on aspects of recovery, such as their response to professional care. However, a large degree of disability is expected for the foreseeable future. |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | £7,680 to £21,730 | The prognosis will be more positive, with the injured person making considerable progress. Any continuing symptoms still being experienced will not be particularly disabling. |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Up to £7,680 | Minor symptoms that resolve in full within a short period of time |
| General Psychiatric Damage | £51,460 to £108,620 | The injured person will have significant problems, seriously affecting their mental health, making it difficult for them to deal with everyday life. As such, their prognosis will be very poor. |
| General Psychiatric Damage | £17,900 to £51,460 | There will still be life-altering issues affecting the injured person’s ability to handle things like work and conducting a regular social life. However, the prognosis will be better than the above bracket. |
| General Psychiatric Damage | £5,500 to £17,900 | The injured person’s condition will be a significant improvement to the bracket above. Due to this, professional help should help them cope with everyday activities and prolonged symptoms should be manageable. |
To get a specific estimate for what you could receive in a successful claim following a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council data breach, please get in touch! Our advisors offer free legal advice and can give you a reliable estimate in just a few minutes.
We can provide you with an estimate for any kind of data breach claim. As such, if you want to claim for an employer data breach, a solicitor data breach or one involving your local council, call us today using the phone number at the top of this page.
Using A No Win No Fee Solicitor To Claim For A Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Data Breach
You may be wondering, “Why should I use your No Win No Fee solicitors to claim?” The benefits of using our solicitors include:
- Your solicitor won’t request payment of legal fees, either upfront or during the claims process.
- Instead, they take a small, legally capped portion of your compensation as payment if your claim has succeeded.
- Your solicitor will not request you to pay legal fees if your claim is unsuccessful.
Therefore, they will only take on your case if they feel you have a reasonably good chance of success.
Where To Find A Specialist Solicitor
You could look for a solicitor nearby that could help you claim for a data breach. However, to get a specialist solicitor, you may want to look further afield.
Looking at online reviews could help narrow down your search. You could also simply give our advisors a call. You can do this for free 24/7 at a time that works for you. They can then connect you to one of our No Win No Fee solicitors.
Talk To A Solicitor For Free
Our advisors are available whenever you are, so if you want to know if you’re eligible to claim or simply have a query about what you could claim for, give them a call for free using the phone number below.
Our friendly and helpful staff can answer any questions you have and can put you through to a No Win No Fee solicitor in just a few minutes. Contact them using the following details:
- Call us for free using 0800 073 8804
- Contact us using our online form
- Email us the relevant details at info@legalexpert.co.uk
- Use the live chat service on the right-hand side of your screen
Similar And Related Articles
For more useful information, please use the links below.
To know more about how you could have the personal data held by third parties deleted, please visit the ICO website.
Click on the Government website to know how to make a complaint due to a data breach.
For a list of penalties that the ICO could punish third parties with due to your data being mishandled, please click here.
Do you want to see if you can claim for a data breach against a Superdrug pharmacy? If so, click on our website.
To learn more about potentially claiming against Virgin healthcare for a data breach, click here.
Want to know how to claim for Costa Coffee mishandling your personal data? If so, click here.
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- Morrisons Data Breach Compensation Claims
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- Newman University Data Breach
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- North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach
- Northampton Borough Council Data Breach
- Northumbria University Data Breach
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- Npower Data Breach Compensation Claims
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- Ravensbourne University London Data Breach
- Reading Borough Council Data Breach
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FAQs Data Breach Victims Ask
For answers to frequently asked questions about data breach cases, please see below.
How do I make a Subject Access Request?
A subject access request is when you contact a company and request that they confirm the personal information they have on file for you. To request that a company do this for you, simply contact them via a letter or an email.
Can children make subject access requests?
A person with parental responsibility can make a subject access request on their child’s behalf. You will need your child’s signature and potentially other evidence to prove that you are requesting this on your child’s behalf.
Could I claim for a breach of a child’s data?
If your child is looking to claim for a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council data breach, you can become a litigation friend to do this on their behalf. Click here to learn more.
Guide by Durdy
Edited by Billing
