A CIVIL Service trade union is alarmed about plans to give sensitive public records to private companies.

Officials from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) are furious that records storage sites at the Department for Work and Pensions, which includes offices in Middlesbrough and Bishop Auckland, County Durham, could be privatised.

There are 36 file stores around the country, with more than 800 workers directly employed by the Civil Service.

The Teesside office has 45 administrative staff and three executive officers and there are similar numbers at Bishop Auckland.

If Government ministers and senior managers decide to privatise the storage offices, the services will be sold by next March.

Teesside branch secretary Tony Hookey said privatisation could leave the system open to abuse.

He said sensitive information such as home addresses and family details would be useful for groups such as debt collection agencies or bailiffs.

Mr Hookey said: "We deal with people's private details and treat them with the utmost confidentiality and professionalism.

"My members believe that Income Support, Social Fund and appeals paperwork should be kept in the public domain.

"Privatisation would also seriously undermine the services that staff in front-line duties provide to the general public who visit our offices."

Stockton North MP Frank Cook has tabled an Early Day Motion for debate in Parliament which highlights the dangers of the proposed privatisation.