Government losing one PC a week

Friday, November 21, 2008

Figures obtained by the Conservatives have revealed that the public sector has lost the equivalent of one computer a week.

In the last 12 months 53 computers, 36 Blackberries, 30 mobile phones and four memory sticks have gone missing.

The figures were received by the shadow housing minister, Grant Shapps, after he sent questions to government ministers to determine the level of IT losses in the past year. The Home Office and the Ministry of Defence were the only departments not to reply.

"The need to come clean and the departments that did show exceptional computer losses have to give more detail," he said. "We need an urgent review of the government's data policies, especially with large projects in the pipeline. It shows ministers are not capable of handling this sort of thing."

The Department of Health lost the most computers, with 14 disappearing. Yet just one case involved personal data, when some junior doctors' details were made available by an outside contractor in breach of their guidelines.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families lost the next highest number of computers with 13 gone in the past year. The Department for International Development, which lost nine, said all the data had been encrypted and was secure. The Department for Transport lost five computers and the Ministry of Justice four.

Recent data loss investigations have marked the first year's anniversary of the HMRC child benefit data loss, where the personal details of up to 25 million people were lost on two CDs. The CDs have never been found.