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North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach – Compensation Claims Guide

If your data has been exposed due to a data breach, and you can prove it was caused by a third party such as a local council, you may be able to claim compensation. Your personal data stored by these organisations can be of a highly sensitive nature, causing prolonged issues if it’s accessed by people who could potentially abuse it. You could, for instance, be at the risk of identity fraud. With that in mind, you may want to claim for a North Lincolnshire council data breach if you’ve suffered damage to your mental health or finances.

Local Government Data Breach Claims

North Lincolnshire Council data breach claims guide

North Lincolnshire Council data breach claims guide

This guide will answer important questions, including:

  • On what legal grounds are you able to claim?
  • What is GDPR?
  • What types of companies can make professional requests for your information?
  • How do you go about requesting personal information?
  • What are the obligations of a data controller, like North Lincolnshire Council?
  • What is the Data Protection Act 2018, and how is it relevant to me making a claim?
  • How can our No Win No Fee solicitors help you receive data breach compensation?

Our advisors are available 24/7 and offer free legal advice so, if you have any questions or queries regarding the data breach claims process, please contact us. You can:

Read on to find out more about how you could claim for a Scunthorpe council data breach.

Select A Section

  1. Our Guide On Claiming For A North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach
  2. Rates Of Data Security Leaks And Incidents
  3. What Is A Compensation Claim For A North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach?
  4. Do Councils Have To Comply With GDPR?
  5. What Private Information Could Councils Hold?
  6. Tenancy And Social Services Record Data Leaks
  7. Notifying ICO Of The Breach
  8. How To Complain And Claim
  9. What Financial Losses And Distress Could Your Claim Include?
  10. North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach Compensation Payout Calculator
  11. North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach – No Win No Fee Claims
  12. Choosing A Lawyer For Your Data Leak Case
  13. Talking To An Expert
  14. Similar Claims
  15. Frequently Asked Questions About Data Leak Cases

Our Guide On Claiming For A North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach 

A data breach by North Lincolnshire Council could result in sensitive documents, like adoption records or tenancy agreements, being accessed, lost or stolen. This could cause undue stress leading to prolonged mental health issues. This might be why you want to claim compensation.

Our solicitors offer No Win No Fee agreements to those claimants who have valid cases, meaning that you won’t have to worry about paying legal fees during the claims process and if you lose you don’t have to pay anything either.

There is, however, an important aspect regarding claim timescales. Basically, to be able to claim, you need to begin the process:

  • Within six years 
  • Or within one year if it involves a breach of human rights.

Compensation calculations can be difficult to estimate until more details are known about your case. Therefore, please contact one of our advisors for free legal advice. They could inform you if you’re eligible to claim and can offer a reliable compensation estimate. Call them 24/7 using the phone number at the top of this page.

Rates Of Data Security Leaks And Incidents 

North Lincolnshire council data breach

Many things can result in a North Lincolnshire Council data protection breach. An important aspect for any data controller relates to cybersecurity and the internal systems being used. With The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport assessed the data protection provisions of UK organisations. 

As you can see above, 20% of the businesses that took part in the survey overall had a version of Windows that was not up-to-date. 32% of large firms and 28% of companies within utilities and production didn’t have an up-to-date version.

This means that these organisations may be more susceptible to a data breach, resulting in sensitive information like social service or tenant documentation being at a greater risk. 

These statistics show that your data may be more at risk than you previously thought. Therefore, if a breach did happen due to your local council not updating their systems effectively, you may be able to claim compensation.

What Is A Compensation Claim For A North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach?

A data breach is a breach of security that causes loss, accidental or unlawful destruction, alteration, unauthorised access or disclosure of personal data. 

The obligations of a data controller like North Lincolnshire Council are to make sure they comply with data protection laws. Part of that is making sure your personal data is as safe and secure as it can reasonably be.

This is one of the main aspects of making a successful data breach claim. The third-party would need to have done something wrong, leading to either them causing the data breach themselves or not taking sufficient precautions to prevent it. 

Therefore, for you to make a successful claim following a North Lincolnshire Council data breach, the council would need to be at least partially responsible. For instance, if a hacker could steal your personal data because their cybersecurity was not updated, you could potentially receive compensation if you suffered damage to your finances or mental health as a result.

Precautions that could prevent such a data breach include the third party hiring a data protection officer, who monitors internal compliance to make sure they are following data protection laws. Firms could also hire specialists to conduct mock hacks (or penetration testing) of their security systems to reveal any vulnerabilities.

To know more about pursuing a case and claiming compensation, you can visit the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website or contact us today.

Do Councils Have To Comply With GDPR?

This section will answer such queries as “What is GDPR?” and give you a better understanding of the basis of making a claim.

In 2018, European-wide legislation was introduced to establish regulations to protect people’s personal data. In making sure that businesses were compliant with this, the UK passed the Data Protection Act 2018. Complementing these pieces of legislation are The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2020, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR). 

GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation, is the practical implication of these data protection laws. Basically, businesses can only hold personal data for specific purposes, and they need to ensure that sufficient protection is in place to avoid a preventable data breach.

As previously mentioned, if the third party, like North Lincolnshire Council, was unable to prevent the data breach, meaning it happened even when they were complying with all the required laws, it’s unlikely you’d be able to claim. For example, some organisations can be targeted by malicious hackers. If they’ve done all they can to protect themselves, a claim would be unlikely to succeed.

The data breach may not be caused by the council. If, for example, a data breach has been caused by financial institutions such as Capital One or Halifax, you may be able to claim if they were breaching personal data law.

What Private Information Could Councils Hold? 

These two sections will provide you with insight regarding the personal information your local council could have. We will also answer questions such as “How do I go about requesting personal information?” and “What organisations can perform investigatory requests for information?”

Examples of a North Lincolnshire Council data breach include:

  • Sending tenant documents, such as the agreement, to the previous address when the new address has been provided.
  • Their data protection officer is not sufficiently checking the company’s cybersecurity and thereby failing to update it. This could result in a cyberattack causing all of your personal information to be stolen.
  • An ex-employee accessing their systems to gather information for their own personal use. If there are no safeguarding checks in place, this could justify a claim. 
  • Sending social services documentation, such as adoption records, to the wrong email address. Sometimes these breaches can expose the data of vulnerable people, creating significant distress. 
  • Revealing identifiable information, such as name and address, due to the council providing a list of people objecting to planning applications. Such information should be redacted.

Tenancy And Social Services Record Data Leaks

North Lincolnshire Council data collection can vary from person to person. If, for instance, you are a tenant in a council property, you may be more vulnerable if the council does suffer a data breach. This is due to the council potentially having a larger amount of your personal data. 

Further examples of a data breach in this regard include:

  • Emailing scans of tenancy audit documents to the wrong address.
  • Providing personal information about you over the phone to another person without passing the relevant GDPR checks.
  • Including passport data in an information pack for the wrong property. This could leave you vulnerable to identity theft.

Social services documents, regarding either older people you help look after or a child you’ve adopted, could also be ascertained through a data breach. 

However, particular organisations can perform investigatory requests for information and disclosure of these records does not require your consent provided there is a lawful basis for sharing. These include:

  • The police
  • Government departments like HMRC
  • Local authorities

This is largely for purposes such as preventing or detecting criminal activity, keeping tax records up to date, and for any emergency medical or wellbeing reasons.

With this in mind, you may be wondering, “What personal information could be taken if I was the victim of a North Lincolnshire Council data breach?” You can send a subject access request to a company to review your personal information on their system. This can give you a greater awareness of what information companies hold for you, so you understand the potential risks if a data breach was to take place.

It isn’t just North Lincolnshire Council data protection security that could be breached. Therefore, click here if you’re looking to make a data breach claim against other companies, such as Quickquid or TSB Bank. If you’d prefer to speak to one of our advisors for free legal advice about a potential claim, call us 24/7 using the details at the top of this page.

Notifying ICO Of The Breach

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) helps monitor and regulate data protection laws to ensure organisations adhere to them. As such, you can raise a complaint with them if you feel your personal data has been stolen or mishandled in contravention of the UK GDPR. However, the ICO does recommend that you:

  1. In the first instance, get in contact with the third party responsible for the data breach. So, if you feel like the data breach occurred due to North Lincolnshire Council’s data collection policies, you would initially contact them. The best way of doing this may be through their data protection officer.
  2. Secondly, you should only contact the ICO if you receive no adequate response within 3 months.
  3. However, please bear in mind that you don’t need to contact the ICO and you’re free to speak to solicitors at any time.

The ICO doesn’t normally investigate cases where there’s been an undue delay in contacting them.

How To Complain And Claim

There are several ways you can contact North Lincolnshire Council about a data breach. You could:

  • Call them
  • Email them
  • Write to them

It’s always best to direct your correspondence to their data protection officer if they have one.

Don’t forget: if they refuse to accept responsibility or you feel like their response is inadequate, you can contact us for legal advice 24/7 at a time that works for you. 

You can call us using the phone number at the top of this page. You can take a similar approach if you want to complain about data breaches from companies such as Virgin Mobile or BT.

What Financial Losses And Distress Could Your Claim Include?

GDPR provides you with rights, like the ability to submit a subject access request to ascertain the personal data that companies have. It also gives you other rights, such as claiming compensation if you have suffered due to the third party breaking data protection law. In this instance, there are two possible heads of claim:

  1. Material Damage – These relate to the financial losses you either have or could suffer due to the breach. After all, compromised data can be a permanent issue. You could become the victim of identity fraud which can greatly impact the quality of your life.
  2. Non-Material Damage – These relate to the psychological damage caused by the event. As such, you could claim compensation for things like emotional distress, loss of privacy and anxiety.

The amount of compensation you receive would depend on the extent of the data breach and to what degree the event has affected you. You could also have been affected by a data breach from an educational institution, such as a university or a college. If you can show they’ve neglected their responsibilities as a data controller, our solicitors could lead to you receiving thousands of pounds in compensation.

North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach Compensation Payout Calculator

You also don’t need to worry about needing to suffer both kinds of damage to make a claim. This is because it’s possible to claim for just the psychological damage caused by the data breach. Previously, you needed to have suffered some form of financial loss to claim successfully. This changed due to the ruling in the case Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc [2015]. The Court of Appeal confirmed that non-material damage, like anxiety and PTSD, could be claimed without suffering any material losses due to the stress involved with such an event.

Another case, Gulati and others v MGN Ltd [2015], clarified how psychological issues can be quantified. The court stated that personal injury compensation awards ought to be considered.

As such, information from the Judicial College is used. The Judicial College built these compensation brackets by reviewing previous payouts and analysing them against the nature and extent of the injury. 

With that in mind, below is a list of mental health issues that could be caused by a data breach. This should give you a better understanding of the amount of compensation you could receive.

Edit
Type of Injury Amount of Compensation Description
Mental Anguish £4,380 The incident in question has caused mental health issues resulting in fear of impending death which can be caused by a genuine reduction in life expectancy.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder £56,180 to £94,470 Cases in this bracket result in prolonged and permanent effects that prevent the injured person from functioning anywhere near their pre-trauma level. Every aspect of their life is significantly affected including their ability to work and communicate.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder £21,730 to £56,180 Injuries in this bracket have a better outlook and prognosis than the bracket above. The amount received in this bracket depends on their response to professional care. However, a large degree of disability will still be experienced in the immediate future.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder £7,680 to £21,730 In this instance, the injured person will have made a significant step to recovery and any continuous symptoms still being experienced will not be particularly disabling.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Up to £7,680 Minor symptoms of PTSD that resolve in full within a short space of time.
General Psychiatric Damage £51,460 to £108,620 The injured person will have significant problems, greatly affecting their ability to handle everyday life. As such, the prognosis will be very poor.
General Psychiatric Damage £17,900 to £51,460 There will still be life-altering issues that affect the injured person’s ability to handle aspects of life, work and education. However, the prognosis will be better than the above bracket.
General Psychiatric Damage £5,500 to £17,900 There will be a substantial improvement to the bracket above in being able to cope with the outside world and, as such, the prognosis will be more positive. People affected by work-related stress may fall within this bracket.

For a valuation more relevant to your circumstances, please get in touch on the number on the top of this page.

North Lincolnshire Council Data Breach – No Win No Fee Claims

We’re proud to offer our services on a No Win No Fee basis. What does this mean?

  • Nothing to pay upfront or as the claim progresses.
  • You won’t have to pay legal fees to them if your claim didn’t result in compensation.
  • If the claim is a success, your solicitor will deduct a small percentage of your compensation award to cover their fees. 

Our solicitors are very experienced in handling all types of claims. Therefore, it isn’t just Scunthorpe Council data breach claims that they will be able to help you with. If you’ve been the victim of a data breach due to Money Supermarket or Compare the Market, you can contact our advisors to see if you can claim.

Choosing A Lawyer For Your Data Leak Case

Remember that you don’t need to look locally for a lawyer. Online reviews can help narrow down your search. The important thing is to find legal representation that’s right for you and appropriate for your needs. 

With that in mind, our lawyers are very experienced and have a great track record. Just check out our reviews for proof. Working with us could result in you receiving thousands of pounds in compensation.

Talking To An Expert

Our advisors are available 24/7, so if you have any questions or want to know if you can claim, call them at a time that works for you. Should you be able to claim, they can put you through to one of our solicitors that can assess what you could receive. Contact us using the details below.

Similar Claims

Links with more useful information can be found below.

For more information about how the UK General Data Protection Regulation works, visit the ICO website.

To read more data breach guidance for individuals and families, visit the National Cyber Security Centre.

Visit the Government website to know more about making a data protection complaint.

Have you experienced a data breach from Public Health Wales? If so, visit our website to see if you can claim.

You could potentially claim for an NHS data breach. To see if you can, click here.

Suffered from a Crown prosecution data breach? If so, and you want to see if you can receive compensation, click here.

Other Useful Compensation Claims

Frequently Asked Questions About Data Leak Cases

For answers to frequently asked questions about data breaches, please see below.

How do I check my eligibility to claim compensation?

You can check your eligibility by contacting us. Our advisors are very knowledgeable in data breach claims, so they will be able to inform you within a few minutes if you’re able to claim.

Could I claim for any distress caused?

You could potentially claim for psychological damage or distress caused by the data breach.

What does it cost to make a claim?

Our solicitors offer their services on a No Win No Fee basis, meaning that you won’t have to pay legal fees either upfront or during the claim. If your claim is successful, a small, legally capped amount will be taken from your compensation. Call us today to learn more about claiming a North Lincolnshire Council data breach.

Guide by Durdy

Edited by Billing

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    • Patrick Mallon

      Patrick is a Grade A solicitor having qualified in 2005. He's an an expert in accident at work and public liability claims and is currently our head of the EL/PL department. Get in touch today for free to see how we can help you.