Loss of 25m UK personal tax details 'very bad'
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Loss of 25m UK personal tax details 'very bad'*
By Kate Kelland in London
November 21, 2007 07:29pm
Article from: Reuters
BRITISH Finance Minister Alistair Darling apologised "unreservedly"
today after admitting the Government had lost the personal details of
half of Britain's population.
Darling was forced to admit to Parliament yesterday that the
Government's tax authority had lost data on 25m people – potentially the
largest data security lapse in British history and one which lays those
25 million people open to the risk of identity theft and bank fraud.
"It is inexcusable, I deeply regret it, I unreservedly apologise for
what has happened," Mr Darling told BBC television.
Yesterday's admission dealt a heavy blow to Prime Minister Gordon's
Brown's Government, which is already being batted by criticism of its
handling of Northern Rock banking debacle – the first run on a British
bank in a century.
In a round of media interviews today, Mr Darling sought to win back
public trust by repeatedly apologising and insisting that such an
enormous security lapse should never have happened and must never happen
again.
Two computer discs containing information on 25m Britons disappeared
after being sent via courier from Britain's tax authority HM Revenue and
Customs (HMRC).
"This is a very, very bad situation indeed," he told GMTV.
"I can well understand people's anxiety and anger that this has
happened. It should never have happened, and I apologise unreservedly
for that."
Mr Darling stressed that there was no evidence that the data had fallen
into criminal hands, but urged Britons to keep a close eye on their bank
accounts.
"The police tell me there is no evidence there has been any criminal or
unusual activity," he said.
Opposition Conservatives ridiculed Mr Darling's attempts to recover the
situation and questioned his competence.
"Is he up to the job? Is this man the right person to be Chancellor of
the Exchequer (finance minister)?" asked George Osborne, the Tories'
finance spokesman.
"The point is that the Government has failed in that first duty it
offers to all of us – to protect," he told GMTV.
Government Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said he was shocked
at the scale of the security breach.
"It's almost certain that they have broken the data protection law. This
is a shocking case. I'm at a loss to find out what happened in this
situation," he told BBC radio.
He also said his office had been issuing warnings about data protection
to organisations for years.
"We've been all the time saying that the more you are collecting
personal data, for understandable reasons, the more the risks increase
and the more you must be aware of what can go wrong."