There has been a data breach in the homecare service of Adult Social Care, the government has confirmed.

Details of names, addresses and phone numbers of 33 service users have gone missing, along with the ’keysafe’ codes of seven of those service users.

In addition, the phone numbers of 43 next of kin and 11 carers have also been mislaid.

The breach was discovered some time last week when a member of staff went to look for the paper files and discovered they were missing.

’We don’t know where they are,’ said a government spokesman.

The missing codes unlock safes containing the key to access the homes of service users, who are vulnerable adults.

There is no evidence that the codes have been used and once the data breach was discovered, all the keysafes were recoded immediately.

No medical or financial details were included in the missing files.

The homecare service which supports individuals to live independently in the community,

The government spokesman said: ’The Information Commissioner has been informed, and all those affected by the loss are being contacted individually.

’An internal investigation has also been set up to investigate the cause of the data breach and to assess and minimise any ongoing impact.

’We apologise to all those affected by this breach and can assure them that we are doing all we can to understand how it has happened.’