Failure to tackle taxi link to abuse cases
ROTHERHAM COUNCIL’S handling of the theft of 21 laptops belonging to children’s services staff made it “understandable that others have formed a view that the council has covered up the facts”, investigators have ruled.
The latops were taken from the council’s Norfolk House building in Rotherham on October 26, 2011 – with five of them found to contain personal data relating to children, adults and staff.
One of the laptops was reported to contain details of a child sexual exploitation case involving taxi drivers, with names, addresses and birth dates of victims and suspects, “plus some narrative about the events” contained on them.
Concerns about the theft were highlighted by Dame Louise Casey,
in her report into the council in February 2015.
The report said the laptops were not encrypted, with the data on them “fairly easily retrievable by anyone with reasonable ICT technical skills”. The council and South Yorkshire Police decided not to inform those whose data had been stolen about what had happened and the incident was not reported to the Information Commissioner Office. The ICO contacted the council about the incident after it was reported in the newspaper in February 2012.
The report said: “The council has not handled the matter well; it failed to take steps to secure the data lost, made a doubtful decision to not report the matter to the Information Commissioner and has been less than helpful in responding to ICO, press and public enquiries. Taken together, it is understandable that others have formed a view that the council has covered-up the facts.”
But it added: “The audit found no factually inaccurate statements made by the council.”
The report revealed no one has been identified in relation to the theft of the laptops – but police had investigated one suspect named in an anonymous letter, only to find no evidence against the person.
It said: “An anonymous letter has named an individual allegedly responsible for the theft of the laptops, however that individual had been investigated by the police under separate investigations and they are confident that the laptops are not present at his address.
“The named individual is not currently, nor has ever been, an employee of the council.” EFFECTIVE ACTION to tackle the link between taxi drivers and child sexual exploitation offences was “never taken” despite strong evidence of what was happening.
A report into taxi licensing issues in the town found the council has agreed a “new robust taxi licensing policy, which has been introduced and enforced”.
But the report did find there had been a past failure to deal with the link between the taxi trade and CSE in the past.
It said: “There was a good deal of intelligence which suggested that elements of the taxi trade were heavily involved in CSE in Rotherham.
“Effective action was never taken because the enforcement function was ineffective. A major reason for this was the decision to take the enforcement function out of the main licensing unit in 2007 and to divide the three enforcement officers between three geographical regions. The enforcement officers predicted difficulties and although they were co-located for three years, they were found to be correct.”
It said senior managers “were not aware of the full extent of the problem with CSE and the taxi service”.
While the report did say improvements have now been made, one councillor said families in Rotherham still do not feel safe allowing their teenage children to travel alone in taxis.
Ukip councillor Nigel Simpson said despite council claims that tougher regulations were tackling the previously-reported involvement of some town taxi drivers in child sexual exploitation offences, there remains a lack of public confidence that things have actually improved.
“I said to people ‘Would you put your 14-year-old in a taxi in Rotherham?’ and the resounding answer was ‘No way’. We still have a long way to go,” he said.