Owen Beattie

Personal information relating to hundreds of people was inadvertently disclosed after a spreadsheet was wrongly attached to a mass email.

The email was sent on 1 August 2024 to 174 individuals who had registered interest for an event about the end-to-end review of special education needs (SEN).

The spreadsheet contained the names, email address and titles of 407 individuals who had registered an interest in attending end-to-end review of SEN events across Northern Ireland, as well as including comments made by a number of individuals.

Solicitor Owen Beattie has been instructed by some of those impacted by the data breach.

In a statement, Owen Beattie & Co Solicitors said: “We can confirm that legal action has been launched against the Department of Education for the data breach that occurred on 1 August 2024.

“Our clients are rightly concerned, angry and distraught by this grievous breach of privacy.

“The apology from the minister is welcomed, but there is still much uncertainty around the extent and scale of this breach.

“This litigation should bring a spotlight to expose how this data breach occurred in the first place, and to also secure accountability for those affected.”