Privacy fine for pharmacy in London

The head of the UK's data protection watchdog has fined a London-based pharmacy a £275,000 data protection fine for failing to ensure the security of special category data.

Doorstep Dispensaree Ltd, which supplies medicines to customers and nursing homes, has left around 500,000 documents in unsealed containers at the back of its premises in Edgware. The documents contained names, addresses, dates of birth, health insurance numbers, medical information and prescriptions belonging to an unknown number of people.

The documents, some of which were not adequately protected against the weather and therefore suffered water damage, were created between June 2016 and June 2018. Failure to process the data in a manner that ensures appropriate security against unauthorised or unlawful processing and accidental loss, destruction or damage is a breach of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) represent

The infringement was discovered after the health authority carried out a separate investigation of the pharmacy.