Richard Steel, Socitm president and Newham Council CIO has apologised to local government colleagues after using confidential information to create a comparison that showed Newham in a favourable light.

In a blog entry, Steel said: "I have got myself into a lot of hot water in my brush with The Inquirer. The information I sent on benchmarking mistakenly included the other participating authorities (although did not match them to their scores). I have written to apologise to colleagues in the boroughs concerned."

The apology was issued to IT bosses at Camden, Ealing, Hackney, Havering and Hounslow the day before he was voted in as President.

They had all taken part in the Benchmarking ICT Performance In London 2006 study, which Steel said showed that Newham was in the "top quartile" of performing boroughs.