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Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council has apologised for the loss of an unencrypted memory stick containing sensitive personal information about more than 200 disabled residents.

According to reports, the local authority was notified those affected and ordered a temporary ban on the use of all USB drives.

The details stored on the missing memory stick are said to include names, addresses, some national insurance numbers, ethnicity and types of disability.  A member of staff is reported to have been suspended and another disciplined as a result of the loss.

The incident comes despite the Council signing an undertaking in September 2009 to improve data security, following the theft of an unencrypted laptop holding personal data on approximately 43,000 children and young people in Wigan’s schools.

Further information: BBC News, 3 February 2010.