Home Office loses data on thousands of criminals

Personal details relating to thousands of criminals have been lost in the latest in a line of Government data blunders, it emerged tonight.

The Home Office said a computer memory stick containing information on around 10,000 prolific offenders had been lost by a contractor.

PA Consulting warned the department on Monday that the stick – which also contains data on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales – might be lost.

And tonight the Home Office admitted it was missing.

A spokeswoman said: “We have been made aware of a security breach at the offices of an external contractor involving the loss of personal information about offenders in England and Wales.

“A full investigation is being conducted. Police and the Information Commissioner have been informed.”

The spokeswoman also said the stick included information from the Police National Computer of around 30,000 people with six or more convictions in the last year.

Opposition parties described the loss as a “massive failure of duty” and accused the Government of being unable to keep any information safe.

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said taxpayers would be “absolutely outraged” if the loss led to big compensation payouts to the criminals involved.

Mr Grieve said: “This is a massive failure of duty.

“What is more scandalous is that it is not the first time that the Government has been shown to be completely incapable of protecting the integrity of highly sensitive data, rendering them unfit to be charged with protecting our safety.

“The British taxpayer will be absolutely outraged if they are made to pick up the bill for compensation to serious criminals.”

And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg argued the loss was evidence that the Government could not be trusted to run an ID cards scheme.

Mr Clegg said: “Charlie Chaplin could do a better job running the Home Office than this Labour Government.

“After tonight’s revelation people will start wondering whether ministers are capable of keeping any data safe anywhere in the country.

“The Government will no doubt seek to blame private contractors, but the rash of data losses over the last two years confirm that there is something much more worrying at stake: this Government cannot keep any information safe.

“If this Government can’t keep data about criminals and the guilty safe, why on earth should we trust them with the data of millions of innocent Britons in an ID card database?”

The Government has been hit by a series of data loss revelations over the last year.

Last November, Chancellor Alistair Darling revealed that the details of 25 million individuals – including bank accounts and National Insurance numbers - had been lost when discs containing child benefit data went missing in the post.

In December, Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly told MPs that information relating to three million learner drivers had been lost when a hard drive was stolen in Iowa.

Later that month HM Revenue and Customs admitting losing the details of 6,500 private pension holders.

This year the Ministry of Defence said more than 100 memory sticks and 650 laptops – some containing secret information – had been lost or stolen since 2004.

That came after sensitive files relating to terrorism, drugs trafficking and money laundering were found on a train.

Nobody from PA Consulting was available for comment.