Whitehall staff face laptop ban

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A massive operation to ensure that civil servants comply with the new rule, laid down by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell on Monday night, is now under way.

As well as communicating the policy to all staff, departments will have to ensure that officials can continue to do their jobs within the constraints of the ban.

This is likely to involve the encryption of large swathes of data.

The move comes amid further data loss embarrassment for ministers after the Government admitted the details of hundreds of thousands of people had been missing for more than a year.

It follows a cross-government review of data handling following HM Revenue and Customs' loss of 25 million child benefit claimants' details in the post.

Thousands of learner drivers have also had personal information lost by a DVLA contractor.

In an email to top civil servants on Monday evening, Sir Gus said: "From now on, no unencrypted laptops or drives containing personal data should be taken outside secured office premises.

"Please ensure that this is communicated throughout your organisation and delivery bodies and implemented immediately, and that steps are taken to monitor compliance."

Earlier, Defence Secretary Des Browne announced an inquiry into military security as he admitted a Navy laptop stolen in October 2006 contained most of the same data that was on a computer taken from an official's car in Birmingham this month.