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Comment: Losing it
Evening Standard22 Aug 2008
The loss by a Government contractor of a database with unencrypted information on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales is by no means the only recent example of sensitive data being mislaid. However, it is undoubtedly one of the most serious. The episode is also very embarrassing for the home secretary, Jacqui smith. The consequences may be borne by the taxpayer in compensation payments if the information is subsequently abused. The negligent individuals this time were not, for once, employed by the home Office directly but by a private company doing government work.
But this raises quite separate concerns, as Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home Affairs Committee, has said, about safeguards applied to such contractors. The fallout will renew questions about the competence of the home Office. It will also raise renewed doubts about the merits of a national ID card - if the Government and its contractors cannot safeguard limited amounts of data, we may wonder how it will handle information on the entire country.
