Drop ID card call after data loss

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

The names, addresses and expected release dates of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales were on a computer memory stick lost by Home Office external contractor PA Consulting.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the loss was "completely unsatisfactory", adding that the information should not have been downloaded on to a memory stick.

The lost computer files also contain the names, addresses and dates of birth of 30,000 people with six or more convictions in the last year, as well as the names and dates of birth of 10,000 offenders regarded as prolific and the initials of people on drug treatment programmes.

"This was data that was being held in a secure form, but was downloaded on to a memory stick by an external contractor," Ms Smith told the BBC.

"It runs against the rules set down both for the holding of government data and set down by the external contractor and certainly set down in the contract that we had with the external contractor."

PA Consulting had the information as part of research it was carrying out for the Home Office on tracking offenders through the criminal justice system.

But the firm is also heavily involved in the ID card project, having been appointed to work on the design, feasibility testing, business case and procurement elements of the programme.

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "The public will be alarmed that the Government is happy to entrust their £20 billion ID card project to the firm involved in this fiasco, at a cost of millions of pounds to the UK taxpayer.

"This will destroy any grain of confidence the public still have in this white elephant and reinforce why it could endanger - rather than strengthen - our security."