East Midlands Ambulance Service Data Breach (2014)

An ambulance service still cannot find a computer disk containing details of 42,000 patients which has been lost for at least two months. An investigation has now been completed, but East Midlands Ambulance service (Emas) has been unable to work out how the disk went missing or where it could have gone. The Information Commissioner's Office is still making enquiries and could fine Emas up to 500,000. Emas has apologised to patients. Following the publication of the investigation report, Emas chief executive Sue Noyes said: "We are an open, honest and transparent service, which learns from its mistakes and takes actions to minimise the risk of such an incident happening again." Emas noticed the disk was missing from a "secure storage safe" at its administrative site in Beechdale Road, Nottingham, on 14 August. They could not find it, despite what the investigation report describes as "extensive searching at the premises".