EAST Lothian Council has apologised over a “serious” staff error which saw the personal details and previous convictions of taxi licence applicants published on the local authority’s website for two hours.

The names, addresses, telephone numbers, driving history and criminal records of 12 applicants for either taxi driver or operator licences - due to be considered by the local authority’s licensing sub-committee yesterday (Thursday) - were mistakenly published last week on East Lothian Council’s website, which displays committee papers in advance of meetings.

The private papers also contained letters of complaints, complete with the complainants’ names and addresses. The information was made public for approximately two hours and was accessed four times, before the relevant council staff were alerted to the error and removed the documents.

A council spokeswoman said: “Unfortunately, due to staff error, these private papers appeared on the public section of the council’s committee web pages for a short period. As soon as the relevant council officials were informed of the error, the papers were removed from the website and the UK Information Commissioner’s office was immediately notified of the breach in data protection. “This was a serious error on the part of the council. We have sent letters to the individuals named in the papers apologising unreservedly for any distress caused. Following an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident, we have also taken steps to improve our procedures to ensure that it does not happen again.” Tom Kelly, from Musselburgh, was one of the applicants whose details were made public.

He told the Courier: “The information concerning my previous convictions doesn’t concern me because they were minor and are really dated now, but I’m really not happy at all about the fact my personal details were on there for anyone to see.

“The council has held its hands up and apologised but it’s very worrying that something like this was allowed to happen.”