Fermanagh and Omagh District Council did infringe data protection legislation when it sent a resident's personal details to the neighbour he was complaining about, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has found.

When Gerard Kilcoyne contacted the Council last year about noise coming from a house the local authority responded by mistakenly sending a letter to the property in question.

After alerting the Council to the mistake Mr. Kilcoyne received an apology and confirmation from a senior official that there had been an “administrative error".

The local authority said it did not believe that the error constituted a data breach.

In the letter, Robert Gibson, the Director of Community, Health and Leisure, said: “I note from your complaint form that you want the Council to inform the Information Commissioners Office of this data breach".

"I can confirm that an informal discussion has taken place. However, the Data protection officer has determined that this breach does not fall within the reporting threshold laid down in the new Data Protection Act 2018," said Mr. Gibson.

However, correspondence from the ICO paints a very different picture.

"Part of our role is to consider complaints from individuals who believe there has been an infringement of their data protection rights.

"From all the information available, it appears that the Council has infringed data protection legislation. This is because a letter for you was sent by the Council to your neighbours’ address."

As a result the ICO believes that further action is required by the Council.

"We have now written to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, requiring the organisation to take the following steps to improve the way it handles personal information; review and update its processes and procedures to ensure that it is compliant with the requirements of the GDPR and that similar incidents cannot occur moving forwards, and ensure that staff are provided with data protection training that is regularly refreshed," the letter stated.

Legally ICO must investigate data protection complaints to an appropriate extent. Depending on the circumstances, it will decide whether or not to take action against the organisation and what form the action will take.

In its letter to Mr. Kilcoyne, the ICO stated: "Your complaint will be kept on file and this will be used to help us to build up a picture of the Council’s information rights practices. We keep a record of all the complaints raised with us about the way organisations process personal information. The information we gather from complaints may form the basis for action in the future where appropriate".