By Tim Ferguson, 1 April 2008 16:29
NEWS
Government departments have misplaced more than 1,000 laptops and almost 500 mobile phones - either lost or stolen - since 2001.
The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Berr) is the latest to reveal figures in response to questions from Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East, Sarah Teather, about the loss of gadgets across government departments.
Full Disclosure campaign
silicon.com is aiming to make businesses and government take data security more seriously. Read more here.
In parliamentary written answers, Berr admitted it had lost 96 laptops since 2001 (along with 82 mobile phones and nine PDAs) taking the total figure to more than 1,000 lost laptops across all government departments.
Back in February silicon.com reported several departments - including the Ministry of Justice - had admitted to losing more than 200 laptops.
In addition to these figures, the Ministry of Defence has previously admitted to losing 347 laptops since 2004. Secretary Des Browne also admitted that three MoD laptops containing around 600,000 details of servicemen and recruits have been stolen since 2005.
Adding to the total tally is the Department for Work and Pensions which also admitted last week to losing 271 laptops, 128 mobile and 20 PDAs over the course of the past seven years.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs lost 94 laptops, 10 mobile phones and 23 PDAs during the same period, while the Department for Children, Schools and Families revealed it has misplaced 84 laptops and 25 mobiles.
In a statement, Teather said: "Year after year the taxpayer is footing the bill for this government's shocking carelessness. It is time we had a complete rethink on the way electronic equipment is protected."
Comments
There are 10 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
"It is time we had a complete rethink on the way electronic equipment is protected"
I have an idea, take the value of lost equipment and the information it holds directly out of their salaries instead of the public purse
2. Haydn Rees
Talk of docking Civil Servant's pay for losing equipment is absurd, unreasonable, and unhelpful; let's hear no more of it. I applaud their coming clean.
People are alot more forgiving of honest mistakes, and less forgiving of secrecy just to keep mistakes secret, than they think. We must create a culture of admitting mistakes
Were lessons learned from in the losses? Are robust procedures put in place to investigate each loss? Were they followed? Has the impact been mitigated?
Making new exciting interesting mistakes ONCE is OK. Making the same old mistakes is unforgivable.
3. Mike King
Out of a workforce of how many, and of how many issued laptops? Shock figures indeed but how do these statistics compare to other large user groups? Maybe the Government are actually more careful than other major employers (how about a comparison with the NHS?)
4. anonymous
I would hope (but doubt) that all government, civil service and defense laptops and pcs use encrypted data (not just encrypted hard drives).
IE they should all be using best security practice - I hope someone can ask this most basic of questions to the relevant minister.
5. Disgruntled tax payer
I'm sorry but to lose a laptop is just plain stupid let alone careless. If a laptop is entrusted to you then it's your responsibility to look after it. It's too easy to get a replacement when the tax payer is paying for it. No doubt if it were personal laptops they were losing they'd soon make a better effort to ensure they're not lost.
Also, if they contain sensitive information that impacts on security or peoples data, then they should be sacked on the spot.
These people are paid more money than most ordinary mortals so they should learn to earn it.
6. Karen Challinor
"Haydn Rees - Talk of docking Civil Servant's pay for losing equipment is absurd, unreasonable, and unhelpful; let's hear no more of it. I applaud their coming clean."
I also applaud their coming clean but as I mentioned the last time lost government laptops were in the news, I used to work for a large multinational, everyone from the CEO dow to middle management had laptops and not one of them lost one in all the years U was there, a thousand in seven years is unacceptable
"Haydn Rees - Were lessons learned from in the losses? Are robust procedures put in place to investigate each loss? Were they followed? Has the impact been mitigated?"
no lessons were learned until recently and that only seems to be to release the news before it is discovered independently, there is no sign of any robust procedures to investigate the loss it seems the usual headless chicken dance still suffices the ICO has no influence in these matters, and the impact has been mitigated only in the eyes of the government who use these announcements as a way of pre-empting the headlines thinking that in two weeks the electorate will have forgotten
so while I applaud their coming clean I still want them to be financially responsible at the moment they have a never ending supply of these toys for free, if there is a financial penalty for losing one then it simply puts the loss in terms they understand
7. Philip Virgo
I agree with Mike King - how does this figure compare with the High Street Banks let alone the "Independent Financial Advisors" to whom we have to give our personal financial details before they can give us advice?
8. Chris Goodman
It is a loss of assets that has not been authorised by Parliament. Therefore the individuals responsible should be responsible for this unauthorised loss to the taxpayer.
It is time that public employees, from Ministers and MPs down, accept personal financial liability for any equipment in their charge. I would also like to, additionally to reimbursement to the taxpayer of replacement costs, a criminal offence introduced covering all publicly funded employees (as it is in the Armed Forces) of losing by neglect public property to the value of £xxx with a fine not less than the value of the equipment lost.
9. Paul Kerrigan
1000 in seven years... How many were issued? both sides of the equation are needed before we rush to judgement. In any case managing the risk is the important factor, given that some will be lost/stolen etc.
10. Charles Smith
I would have loved to have lost some of the Laptops that have been thrust upon me by some Corporate Purchasing Departments. Heavy, undersized disks and short battery life.
There should be a law that anyone specifying a laptop purchase for another person should be made to carry it on a two mile walk before the purchase is approved.
On a more serious note questions should be asked about whether the person should have the laptop in the first place and whether the corporate/organisational data should be stored on the laptop. In my many travels I found that a mobile phone and a "Black & Red" notebook was fine for most mobile situations. Presentations can be easily stored on a CD and viewed on local equipment.