A SECOND BRITISH MP has apologised after being caught leaving constituency papers in a bin.
Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable has apologised after it emerged that official correspondence had been dumped outside his constituency office in Richmond and Twickenham for recycling. Some of the papers contained constituents’ personal details.
A local resident collected material found outside the MP’s office over a nine-month period before releasing them to a newspaper.
The Press Association reports that Vince said in a statement that although there is a system for shredding confidential material, “some correspondence which should have been protected was placed in bags for recycling outside the office”.
He said that the staff responsible for disposing of the material have accepted “this was an entirely inappropriate way to handle such paperwork”.
“Both I and my constituency team are dedicated to meeting the highest standards for the people of Twickenham. I am very sorry that in this instance they were not met,” the MP added.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has been notified and is expected to investigate if data protection laws were breached.
Cabinet minister Oliver Letwin apologised last month after he was photographed leaving documents in public bins at a park in London.
He insisted that no sensitive material was contained in the papers, despite reports that some constituents’ personal details and letters from the Intelligence and Security Committee were found in the dumped correspondence.
Letwin said he would no longer dispose of material in that manner.
- Additional reporting by the AP
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