Government racks up 100 data breaches

Whitehall has suffered a further 30 data breaches since it lost 25 million people's details last November.

There have been 30 data losses in central government, 50 in public sector organisations and 17 in local government, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) confirmed.

The figures were revealed by justice minister Michael Wills in a written answer to Parliament in response to a question by shadow minister for the cabinet office Francis Maude.

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Wills told Parliament: "The Commissioner encourages organisations to report serious data breaches to his office, although there is no legal obligation on them to do so.

"Because of the subjective criteria used by organisations when deciding whether to notify, the severity and impact of the breaches vary."

Reported public losses outstrip the private sector, where 41 incidents have been recorded since November last year.

The issue of public data loss became a bigger issue with the HMRC's loss of 25 million people's details on two CDs, which sparked a host of revelations about missing data in government and business.