IT contractors and other staff working for West Berkshire Council are to be given more training on the authority's data security policy following the loss of a USB stick.

The protected device contained sensitive personal information of children and young people and was still in use despite the council having introduced a new encrypted data policy in 2006.

An investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) indicated that staff had not received appropriate training on data protection issues.

Inadequacies were also found in the monitoring of compliance with council data protection policies.

The incident, which is the second within six months, resulted in the council's chief executive, Nick Carter, signing a formal undertaking to ensure staff receive the appropriate training in the future.

Last month, the ICO announced that 1,000 data breaches have now been reported to the regulator after it had been set up.