ACC says sorry for botched mailout

ACC has apologised "unreservedly" to thousands of businesses and individuals whose private information about workplace injuries was sent to the wrong companies.

The corporation sends out 15,000 individual reports each month and yesterday 2000 were mailed to the wrong businesses.

In a statement issued last night, general manager Dr Keith McLea said ACC was very disappointed privacy may have been breached and blamed a problem with the January mailout.

This was done by an external agency whose procedures would be reviewed, he said.

"The reports have not been collated correctly by the mail-house and some 2000 businesses will have received information intended for other organisations, including private information," he said.

The reports outline injuries in the workplace to help businesses manage health and safety systems.

Dr McLea said steps were immediately taken to rectify the error.

"Upon becoming aware of this today we immediately put in place steps to retrieve the reports and get them to the correct business," he said.

ACC had asked for a full investigation by the mail-house and a review of general procedures, as well as contacting the Privacy Commissioner, he said.

"Our clients' information is of the utmost importance to us and we're very disappointed that privacy may have been breached," Dr McLea said.