‘Dozens of managers’ sent sex abuse reports

ACC has admitted it has for years been sending the same monthly report naming victims of sexual abuse and violent crimes to dozens of managers outside the corporation’s sensitive claims unit.

One of the monthly reports is at the centre of a privacy scandal after it was wrongly sent by ACC to a client who had no business receiving it.

ACC has been apologise to 7000 scrambling to claims clients since the details of the privacy breach were revealed on Tuesday.

Nearly 140 of the clients were from the sensitive claims unit which deals with claims of incest, sexual abuse, rape and other violent crime.

Many of those clients have since asked why their private details were sent not only to a member of the public but also to about 50 managers who were not part of the sensitive claims unit.

But in response to questions yesterday, ACC admitted that the practice of sending the same or similar details to those managers had been going on ‘‘for a number of years’’.

Asked why it was necessary for the names of sensitive claims clients to be revealed to dozens of managers who were not responsible for clients of the unit, ACC said the report was never intended to identify individual clients with their branch classifications.

‘‘We do accept, however, that even though the report was never intended to link individuals, we can in future redact the names of sensitive claims clients,’’ a spokeswoman said.

Privacy lawyers have repeatedly questioned this week why details of sensitive claims clients were being distributed to ACC staff outside the unit.

One sensitive claims client said she had been repeatedly told in writing that her details were kept within the unit and that only three people in the unit had access to her file. She and other sensitive claims clients have accused ACC of an appalling culture privacy practices.

One said she had received nine letters of apology from the corporation for privacy breaches. Each time it said it took privacy seriously and each time it said it had put in place ‘‘systems to prevent this happening again’’.

ACC Minister Judith Collins is expecting to receive a report from the corporation today on the privacy breach.

Major security breaches B7

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