26 September 2008, 13:58

General Teaching Council loses members' details

The General Teaching Council for England (GTC) has apologised for losing a disc containing personal details of over 11,000 teachers. The disc had been sent from a data processing contractor to the GTC's offices using a courier service. The GTC is the professional body for teaching staff in England, and membership is compulsory for working teachers.

The data on the disc, which was encrypted, contained names, addresses and teacher reference numbers. No financial information was included. GTC Registrar Alan Meyrick said in a statement: "We are taking this issue very seriously; we know that incidents like this are concerning and deeply regret any worry caused to teachers involved. We have taken all possible steps to protect the integrity of the Teaching Register and are working to ensure that there will be no similar incident in the future".

The GTC has written to all teachers affected by the loss, who all filled in registration update forms during July or August. The council is planning to use electronic data transfer in future.

(jbe)

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