LONDON (AFP) — The government has lost or had stolen over 1,000 laptop computers in recent years, it said Tuesday in an admission likely to fuel recent criticism of its record on protecting sensitive data.
The figures, released to parliament, show that at least 200 went missing last year alone -- the equivalent of about 16 per month -- from departments including the defence ministry and the revenue and customs department.
There has been a steady drip of revelations about lost computers in the media since last November, when the government admitted it had lost confidential records for 25 million Britons who receive child benefit payments.
The data, on two discs that were put in the post by mistake, included names, addresses, dates of birth and bank details, prompting outrage from political opponents and civil liberties campaigners.
In January, the defence ministry stoked fears about potential identity fraud by revealing that a laptop containing details of some 600,000 people interested in joining the armed forces was stolen from a naval officer.
And just last week, a disc marked "Home Office -- confidential" turned up in a second-hand laptop bought on the Internet auction site eBay that was taken to a computer shop.
Civil servants have since been banned from taking unencrypted laptops or devices containing sensitive data out of secure premises.
But the statistics published Tuesday could still be an under-estimation as not all departments gave figures, including the home and foreign offices, and much of the data only covers the past 12 months.
In all, at least 1,052 laptops have disappeared.
The Ministry of Defence topped the list -- although it appeared to provide the most comprehensive figures -- saying that since 1998, it has had 503 laptops stolen, including 68 in 2007. Twenty-three PCs were also lost.
The Ministry of Justice has had 136 laptops stolen since 2001; eight others were lost and another 26 were described as "missing".
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