Waltham Forest Council is conducting an investigation after the names of school pupils at risk of being radicalised were made public.
The names were accidently revealed following a freedom of information request by a parent at a primary school. The pupils had been involved in the BRIT programme - Building Resilience through Integration and Trust - which aimed to ensure early intervention for any children felt to be vulnerable to radicalisation.
The council said the full names of the children had been blocked out in the response issued by the school, but the information had been ‘manipulated’ to reveal the full details.
A council spokesperson said: ‘Because one of the emails contained one child’s full name and the first names of other children, this information was clearly blocked out in the response issued by the school.
‘However, we now understand that the information sent out has since been manipulated by a third party to reveal the blocked-out names. Someone has then used their own methods to obtain all of the children’s full names, rather than alert the school or the council that there was a problem with the information released.'
The council said it had taken legal steps to secure copies of the information, informed the families of those affected and has launched a full investigation.
