More than 1,000 apply for security payment following PSNI data leak

By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

More than 1,000 PSNI officers and staff have taken up an offer of a payment to help with home security improvements following a major data leak.

The Policing Board was told the cost to the force of the scheme is currently £400,000.

In August, the details of almost 9,500 PSNI officers and staff were mistakenly published in response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

The list included the surname and first initial of every employee, their rank or grade, where they are based and the unit in which they work.

Police later said the information is in the hands of dissident republicans and the controversy over the leak contributed to the resignation of PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne.

His replacement, Jon Boutcher, later announced the universal offer of £500 to all staff to help with security.

Providing an update to the Policing Board, the PSNI’s chief operating officer, Pamela McCreedy, said: “To date, we’ve had just over 1,000 claims and the cost of that’s coming in in the region of £400,000.

“So, that’s about £400 (each)

“We anticipated this, some people will already have some measures that they’re satisfied with and this was giving them additional assurance.

“And we can see there’s 350 claims in progress but not finalised.

“So we’ll expect to see those coming through this month.

“And the workforce have got to the end of March to get all those in so we are quite time-constrained within the budgetary year.

“There’s been a reasonable uptake to date.”