Whitehall data security blunder

The Government has been hit by another computer data security scandal as it was reported yesterday that confidential files containing sensitive intelligence on thousands of the country's most prolific criminals had been lost.

The data was taken from the Police National Computer, and had been entrusted by the Home Office to PA Consulting Group, a private consultancy firm.

The personal details of more than 33,000 serious criminals, the names and dates of birth of all the 84,000 people in the prison system, plus dossiers on 10,000 'priority criminals' were put on a memory stick, which was subsequently lost.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was informed on Tuesday and Scotland Yard has been called in to investigate the disappearance. If the data gets into the wrong hands, the implications could be massive.

Thousands of police informants would become at risk if their criminal cohorts knew of their status, while offenders themselves could seek police protection from vigilante groups.

The Opposition has leapt upon the story, with David Ruffley, the Shadow Minister for Police Reform, saying: “This shambles proves that this accident-prone Home Secretary hasn’t even got a grip of what goes on in her own building."