Lorna Skinner KC acted for the Claimants in successful data breach, misuse of private information and breach of confidence claims against the Metropolitan Police. The judgment, following a trial earlier this year, was reserved pending the outcome of appeal in Farley v Paymaster (1836) Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 1117. Compensation, including compensation for personal injury in the form of psychiatric harm, was awarded for their objectively well-founded fears of disclosure as a result of a data breach. The Court also applied Article 82(2) and (4) of the UK GDPR in holding the MPC liable for the processing.
The Claimants in the case were foster carers, one of whom had been the subject of an unfounded allegation of assault by a child in his care. Subsequently, the child’s birth mother had made a threat to kill him, accompanied by a statement to the effect that she knew where he lived. The case arose from the processing by the Defendant’s “Family Disclosure Team” of the Claimants’ home address by making it available through the Box cloud storage system to parties in family proceedings. On the evidence, the Court was not satisfied that the Claimants’ home address had in fact been disclosed to and read by the birth mother, but did find that they had objectively well-founded fear that this had happened. The Claimants were awarded £15,000 and £18,500 respectively, £5,000 of which reflected damages for loss of control of the data. They also recovered special damages for installation of an alarm system, replacement of the car and, in the case of BXH, future treatment costs.
Lorna was instructed by Slater & Gordon.
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