Greenwich Council has raked in nearly £10k in the last three years flogging residents’ personal data.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed the council has made an average of £3,235 a year selling electoral information of those living in the borough.

The council was asked by the local democracy reporting service how much it has made “selling electoral roll data to individuals and organisations.”

Electoral roll data includes names and addresses of people signed up to vote in elections.

Councils are obliged by law to sell information to certain organisations – or even individuals – and last year alone Greenwich Council made £3,457 selling data on.

In 2016/17, it made just over £3,000, and in 2015/16 the figure was £3,247.

MORE - REVEALED: Bexley Council makes thousands selling personal data

Councils have been bashed by critics, including campaign group Big Brother Watch, for such transactions – claiming it undermines the trust voters have in local government.

In its FoI response, Greenwich Council said: “All charges requested and paid are set in law.

“Supply of the full register is only made to those with a specific right in law to purchase the data such as Credit Reference Agencies for connection in approving credit applications and to political parties for checking the integrity of elections.

“The income accrued helps to offset the costs the council incurs in preparing the data for supply.”

Nearby Bexley Council recently revealed how much it has made from flogging data – raking in £2k a year on average since 2015.

Last year the council made a sum of £3,411 from selling data, more than 2017’s total of £2,184.

In 2016 and 2015, the council made £1,420 and £2,022 respectively.

A Bexley Council spokesman said:  “Information on the register is used for other searches, including detecting fraud, checking credit applications and calling people for jury service.

“While we understand that there are issues such as direct marketing, there are protections for residents covering how the information is used.”

There are two versions of the electoral roll – the full register and the open register.

The full register is used for electoral purposes, and councils may use it for duties relating to security, while the police may use data for law enforcement.

The open register is an extract of the full register which details can be bought and used for marketing.