Civil servants lose computer a day
Published: Monday, 29 December 2008, 12:07PM
Government departments have lost an average of more than one computer a day for the past seven years.
Official figures show that 1,774 Government laptops and 1,035 desktop computers have been lost or stolen since 2002 - the equivalent of almost eight a week, or more than 400 a year.
Over the same period, some 676 mobile phones, 202 hard drives and 195 memory sticks have also been lost or stolen.
Worst offender was the Ministry of Defence, which has seen 866 laptops stolen and 178 lost, as well as 157 desktops stolen and seven lost.
The figures were obtained by Liberal Democrats through parliamentary questions.
"Everyone understands that things go astray but it is truly staggering that over the last seven years a laptop has been lost every working day across Government," Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Paul Holmes said.
"It demonstrates a culture of carelessness across Whitehall that ministers have done nothing to curtail.
"There must be serious concerns about what kind of sensitive data is on the thousands of computers that have gone missing.
"This is yet more evidence that the Government cannot be trusted with our personal information.
"There is no reason to think they will be any less slapdash with the intrusive ID cards database or the Big Brother phone call log."
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