p2pnet news | Security:- British MPs want to make the loss of personal data a crime.

As things stand, UK government departments can’t be held criminally responsible for data protection breaches, says the BBC, but following a report on the “truly shocking” loss of 25 million people’s personal details by HM Revenue and Customs, the Commons justice committee demands tougher laws, says the story.

“The scale of the data loss by government bodies and contractors is truly shocking, but the evidence we have had points to further hidden problems,” Guardian Unlimited as Alan Beith, chairman of the committee, saying, going on:

“It is frankly incredible, for example, that the measures HMRC [HM Revenue & Customs] has [now] put in place were not already standard procedure.”

HMRC lost discs holding personal and bank details of every British family claiming child benefit.

“Further revelations of data losses by nine NHS trusts and a transport department contractor increased concerns about the handling of personal details by the government and businesses working for it,” says the story.

Information commissioner Richard Thomas, who gave evidence to the select committee, told BBC Radio 4 there were more personal data loss cases “in the pipeline,” says the BBC.

Whitehall departments are coming to him on almost a, “confessional basis, quite rightly, to report that they too have got problems” and, “It’s a very serious situation and it impairs the proper use of data, which is often very important both to individuals and in areas like child protection and dealing with criminal behaviour,” Thomas declared.

Slashdot it!

Also see:
BBC – Tougher data laws needed, say MPs, January 3, 2008
Guardian Unlimited – MPs say losing computer data should be made a crime, January 3, 2008

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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