Childbirth charity NCT has contacted the police and the Information Commissioner’s Office after suffering a data breach which has seen the details of 15,085 users accessed by hackers.

The charity has sent an email apologising to the new and expectant parents that have been affected by the data breach which happened on Wednesday.

It said that email addresses, usernames and an encrypted version of the users’ passwords have been compromised.

Users are being recommended to change their usernames and passwords.

A spokesman said: “NCT has suffered a data breach which, regrettably, has caused some users of our website to have their registration details compromised.

“These details are limited to their email address and the username and an encrypted version of the password that they created to register on the site. We stress that no financial or personal details are held as part of this data so no financial or personal details have been compromised.

“The breach occurred and was discovered on Wednesday, upon which we contacted everyone affected telling them about the breach and advising that they change their username and passwords. We have also reported the matter to the police and Information Commissioner.”

The charity’s website had been down over the weekend.

Quarterly figures by the Information Commissioner’s Officer revealed that 53 charities suffered data breaches in the six months to March last year – more than double the amount in than in 2014.