Isle of Wight Council is investigating a data breach after it sent out council tax letters containing residents’ personal information.

The authority posted out 51 letters to residents containing the details of another person and officers have gone door-to-door to hand-delivering a second letter explaining the faux pas and requesting that the original is not opened.

The second letter reads: ‘You may have received a letter addressed to you from the council tax department marked from the Isle of Wight Council.

‘It has come to our attention that this letter may also contain details that do not relate to your council tax account and for this reason we kindly request that you do not open this letter, if you have not already done so.’

A council spokesperson said: ‘We are investigating how this data breach occurred [to] ensure it does not happen again.’

However, the council does not expect the breach to require a self-referral to the Information Commissioner’s Office due to the small number of people affected.