The blundering DWP yesterday shared the email addresses of all the attendees of the first Pathways to Work Green Paper virtual consultation event in a very basic breach of data confidentiality.
An email sent out to all attendees on Thursday provided a link to the Teams meeting for the first virtual consultation event, due to take place on 6 May. However, it included all the email addresses of the participants in the ‘To’ section of the email.
These included 26 members of the public, 10 representatives of local authority and voluntary sector organisations and 19 staff working for the DWP.
An attachment with the email even set out which of the DWP staff were ‘required’ participants, which were ‘optional’ and detailed which section of the DWP they work in, such as, corporate support and development, occupational psychology, private pensions, labour market directorate, disability and health, customer experience.
A few hours later, the DWP sent participants another email stating:
“Apologies for the Teams invite that was shared, there was a technical difficulty. The previously scheduled Teams meeting has now been cancelled, and a new meeting invitation will be shared with you shortly.
“In the meantime, if you would like us to use a different email address for the updated invitation, please reply to this email by 02/05/2025.”
As an apology for a serious breach of confidentiality it stopped short of being fulsome. In fact it stopped short of admitting what had happened and apologising for it at all.
Benefits and Work understands that the breach has already been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Meanwhile participants are still waiting for another invitation to the virtual event, which is due to consider “Reforming the structure of the health and disability benefits system”.
Attendees at the other Green Paper consultation events, which include in-person events so secret no-one – including the participants - knows where they are happening, will be hoping the DWP manages their confidential data a little more professionally.
