Information Commissioner reaches out to blacklist victims

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has this week sent out letters to 1200 names on the blacklist – more than a third of the total – based on addresses supplied by the Deaprtment for Work & Pensions.

The Consulting Association held more than 3200 names on its database of ‘undesirables’ who were effectively illegally blacklisted from working in the construction industry. As the blacklist was secret, until the ICO busted open the scandal in 2009, most names on the list still have no idea that they were on it. Much of the information held by the Consulting Association was sketchy, unreliable or is now out of date.

Earlier this year, the ICO wrote to 103 people on the list in the cases where listed addresses were confirmed as accurate by credit reference agency Equifax.

The 1200 being contacted this week have been tracked down via National Insurance numbers given with names listed by the Consulting Association. The ICO sent the Department for Work and Pensions around 1700 sets of details in the cases where it had a National Insurance number. In 1200 cases, an up-to-date address was found. There were around 500 or so cases where the DWP was not able to provide an address. In around half of these cases this was because the person had died, while the rest did not match with information on their system.

The ICO said that so far it has been able to supply 467 individuals with details of what information was held about them on the blacklist. These will be first in line for the blacklist compensation scheme set up by some of the major contractors that sponsored the Consulting Association.

It has also set up a webpage that brings together information on the blacklist, for anyone who is concerned they may have been included on it.

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