Wandsworth Council has raked in more than £14k in the last four years selling off residents’ data to third parties.

A freedom of information request by the Wandsworth Times revealed the council makes an average of £3,608 a year selling electoral information of those living in the borough.

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

The council it was required by law to provide the information.

"We are required by the Representation of the People Regulations 2001 to permit credit reference agencies to purchase the full register of electors and to make available to anyone who wishes to purchase it the edited version of the register," a council statement read.

"The fees are also set by law, £20 plus £1.50 per 1,000 names.

"We have no choice as this is a legal requirement.

"The electoral register contains 224,473 registered electors and the edited version contains 69,803."

Last year alone, the council made £4,020.5 profit from selling data, the most in the past four years.

In 2017, 2016 and 2015, the council made £3,287.50, £3,962 and £3,162.50 respectively. In total this comes to £14,432 the council has earned over the past four years.

Of this total, slightly more than £12,600 worth was sold to credit reference agencies, with the rest being handed to individuals or companies.

In comparison, Merton Council earned £13,846.5 selling off its own residents' data over the same time period.