The laptops, containing the details of around 1,700 individuals, were stolen from an employees home. Almost 1,000 of the individuals were clients of Ealing Council and the rest were clients of Hounslow Council.

Both laptops were password protected but unencrypted, despite this being in breach of both councils policies.

Ealing Council provides an out-of-hours service on behalf of both councils, which is operated by nine staff who work from home. The team receive contact from a variety of sources and rely on laptops to record information about individuals.

ICO said there is no evidence to suggest that the data held on the computers has been accessed and no complaints from clients have been received by the data controllers to date. But there was a "significant risk" to the clients privacy, the ICO said.

As a result, the ICO has fined Ealing Council 80,000, and has fined Hounslow Council 70,000. The ICO said Ealing Council breached the Data Protection Act by issuing an unencrypted laptop to a member of staff in breach of its own policies.