In at 10, with a bullet

Cornwall Council just scrapes in to the top ten in the latest league table of local authorities, but I doubt there'll be much celebrating at County Hall. Big Brother Watch has dug up some fascinating data on how councils fail to manage the vast quantities of information at their disposal - and Cornwall is one of the worst.

Cornwall, we now know, has recorded 25 cases of information mismanagement in the last three years. The cock-ups included lost back-up tapes, cameras, mobile phones and data sticks -even sending out confidential details of workers' pay and conditions to companies tendering for council business.

As BBW comments:

"The information held by local authorities concern a wide range of services, requiring intimate personal information about the most vulnerable in society. The implications of this information being lost cannot be overstated, dealing with sensitive matters that under no circumstances should become public. With recent moves to allow local authorities to access more centrally-held personal information, for example details on benefits and earnings, the amount of data potentially at risk continues to grow."

Buckinghamshire was top of the BBW league, with 72 reported incidents.