Publishing officers’ names on courts website ‘not a data breach’ – police chief

The publishing of names of police officers on the Northern Ireland courts website was “not a result of any failure by the PSNI”, the chief constable has said.

Justice Minister Naomi Long also denied a data breach, telling the Stormont Justice Committee on Thursday that no information was released erroneously.

She told MLAs that court details relating to public sittings are “routinely listed publicly online, unless an application is made to the court for anonymity”.

The incident on Monday came as officers seek compensation after their details were published in a major data breach in 2023.

The Department of Justice said it had taken immediate action earlier this week to remove the online public court list.

Almost 10,000 police officers and staff were affected by the 2023 breach when their details were published online, as the PSNI responded to a Freedom of Information request, leading to fears their safety had been compromised.

Police officers remain under a threat from terrorists assessed by MI5 as “substantial”.

Earlier this week, the PSNI made an offer of £7,500 each in compensation for the 2023 breach.

The Stormont Executive has agreed to ring-fence £119 million to fund the awards.

It is understood that around 41 officers were affected by the incident this week.

Speaking at a meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board on Thursday, Jon Boutcher said the incident this week was not a data breach.

“I want to clarify as far as I can the incident whereby names of police officers were published on a court list earlier this week,” he said.

“This is not a data breach, and this was not a result of any failure by the PSNI.

“Names appearing on a court list is a long-established position in all legal proceedings, unless an anonymity order is in place to prevent this. To have an anonymity order in any ongoing or future court proceedings, a request for such an order has to be made through the court.

“I want to personally thank the Northern Ireland Courts Service for their support in addressing this issue so quickly.

“This was not their fault or the Department of Justice’s either.

“This is an unfortunate and unnecessary incident I realise will have caused frustration.”

He added: “We do need to achieve a position where the names of police officers being shown in such a way does not cause alarm or distress.

“Our officers give evidence without anonymity all the time. Frontline officers provide their names to community groups, to victims.

“Countless officers and staff have public facing roles across the organisation.

“I recognise in these legal proceedings those officers were entitled to anonymity, and I hope they have not been too distressed by the events of this week.”

Ms Long said only a judge can grant anonymity in the courts system, adding it is the responsibility of legal representatives to make such applications.

She said there was no record of an anonymity application being received by the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service or granted by the court in relation to the cases that were listed.

But she said as a precautionary measure, her department took immediate action and made the decision to have public court lists online taken down.

“This was done as a precaution and not as a result of it having made a mistake,” she said.