WEIR ANGER AT SCALE OF UK GOVERNMENT LOST AND STOLEN LIST

 

600 LAPTOPS, 400 MOBILE PHONES AND OFFICIAL CAR AMONGST LOST ASSETS

 

SNP Westminster Consumer Affairs spokesperson, Mike Weir MP, has published details of property lost or stolen from UK Government departments, after parliamentary questions by the Angus MP revealed an extraordinary tally of missing assets.

 

Mr Weir’s parliamentary questions revealed that almost 600 laptops, and more than 400 mobile phones, had been lost or stolen. Unusual missing items ranged from a wall clock to an official car, lost by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and a motorcycle lost by the International Development Department.

 

Mr Weir said:

 

“Its not just public confidence that this Labour administration is loosing, it’s a fortune in government property as well.

 

“These figures reveal a shocking lack of security across UK government departments. Clearly the loss of the child tax credit data was just the latest in a long line of reckless disregard for computer security.

 

“To loose one laptop might be careless, but to loose 600 is simply unbelievable.

 

“Of course, from time to time items may be lost or stolen, but these figures are just mind-boggling. The cost to the taxpayer is just horrendous, but I suppose we should be glad that the falling cost of computers has reduced the annual cost!

 

“It is not just the scale or cost of the losses that is disturbing, but also, in terms of IT equipment, there are serious questions about the security of the information they contain.

 

“Indeed, these figures do not tell us if personal information – such as the twenty-five million child records lost by the government last year – relating to members of the public have also been lost. I have asked specifically what action was taken after these losses but government departments are hiding behind regulations that only require them now to disclose information in their annual reports.

 

“The question must be asked why, with this level of loss, action was not taken years ago to improve security and, perhaps, avoid the fiasco of the child data loss. It is worth remembering that these disks have never been found. Government ministers must have known about this problem for years yet took no effective action. That is a terrible indictment of the incompetence of this Labour administration.

 

“We must have a top level review of how government assets and data are handled. This should also sound the death knell of the government’s ill fated ID card scheme. If security it this lax why on earth should anyone trust them with yet more information.”

 

Turning to the Ministry of Defence, who responded to the Angus MP’s questioning on lost or stolen property by saying: “Other than the cases already in the public domain, as a result of the recent data loss, the information requested is not held centrally and only be provided at disproportionate cost”, Mr Weir said:

 

“What is particularly worrying is the attitude of the Ministry of Defence, for example, who cannot answer the question as to whether confidential or personal information has been compromised since “the information is not held centrally”.

 

“Do we take it from this that Ministers have not been told, or have not sought to find out the extent of any problem. This a disturbing and unfathomable response from the department responsible for our armed forces”