Gov't fails to keep court data locked up

The government department responsible for ensuring standards in the UK's courts is investigating the loss of four CDs containing personal details.

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HM Inspectorate of Court Administration (HMICA) said chief inspector Eddie Bloomfield was looking into the loss but refused to confirm or deny that the missing data included the names and addresses of alleged victims and witnesses in criminal cases.

The discs went missing on 15 December last year after being mailed by recorded delivery from the Ministry of Justice to an unknown recipient.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said it will scrutinise the department's security procedures and has asked for a copy of Bloomfield's investigation before deciding what action to take.

The data breach is the latest incident in an exhausting list of government security breaches, which includes the NHS losing hundreds of thousands of patients' records, the DVLA losing three million learner drivers' details and the HMRC losing 25 million child benefit details.

Last week saw other government blunders come to light, such as the loss of more than 4,000 patient details by primary care trusts in Stockport and Oldham.

A spokesman for the ICO said: "Recent security breaches have reinforced the need for all organisations to take the security and protection of personal information seriously.

"We will be looking for answers to searching questions about the security procedures which HMICA have in place to protect personal information and the safeguards that have been introduced to prevent a reoccurrence of this type of incident."

A spokesman for HMICA said in a statement: "An investigation is underway so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."

A question mark hangs over which postal carrier handled the discs, as the Royal Mail cast doubt on its involvement saying: "We have not been given any indication by the Ministry of Justice that [the data loss] has anything to do with Royal Mail."

Royal Mail recorded delivery is treated as standard post, and is not tracked by the Royal Mail.

ZDNet UK's Tom Espiner contributed to this report