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Barnet Council has lost the personal data of approximately 9,000 students following a burglary at an employee’s home.

The stolen information was stored on unencrypted CDs and memory sticks in breach of council IT security policy, the London Borough said. An encrypted council laptop was also taken during the break-in earlier this month.

In a letter apologising to parents, Barnet Chief Executive said the missing data included children’s names, addresses, date of birth, details of educational attainment and free school meals entitlement – and in a ‘few’ cases was ‘more extensive’.

According to a statement by the Council, the employee – now suspended – had been using  the data ‘for statistical purposes’.  Barnet said it had since taken action to improve its data handling procedures including ’software changes to prevent staff saving any data onto unsecured memory devices (including CD-ROMs)’.  A full independent inquiry has been ordered into the incident.