SENSITIVE personal papers about three child protection cases were dropped in the road by a council employee.

The documents, including a doctor’s report, mental health reports and other medical information, were found the following day and handed to police.

An Oxfordshire County Council solicitor said he had taken the documents home to work on them when he lost them in July last year.

The Government’s Information Commissioner has now ordered the council to enforce data protection training, and ensure it is completed so employees can put it into practice.

But the three families involved in the cases have not been informed.

Disciplinary action was taken against the solicitor, who is still employed, but the council refused to say how.

The council would not say what stage the child protection cases were at, but said none of them was affected by the incident.

A spokesman said the person who found the documents immediately passed them to police.

He added the council took independent legal advice in deciding whether to tell the families involved, but was concerned about distressing them without any evidence to suggest that the documents had in fact been disclosed.

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