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Source: Daily Mail
(Extract)
Secret personal details of Britain’s most dangerous criminals have been lost by the Government.
The public could now face an enormous bill to protect paedophiles, rapists, drug runners and killers from vigilantes or rival gangsters.
The names, addresses, details of convictions and even jail release dates of almost 130,000 people were all in Home Office files lost when a computer memory stick went missing.
It was being used by an employee of a private contractor working for the department.
The astonishing security blunder plunges Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who was told of the scandal on Tuesday, into the greatest crisis of her career.
Miss Smith informed the Metropolitan Police – who are now frantically hunting for the portable data storage device – but chose not to tell the public immediately.
It took the intervention of a whistleblower for details to emerge. The delay is likely to lead to damaging questions for the Home Secretary, whose mood last night was described by aides as ‘livid’.
The Office of the Information Commissioner said the data – a list of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales, plus details of 43,000 most serious and persistent offenders – was a ‘toxic liability’.
Tory spokesman David Ruffley warned of huge costs for taxpayers if criminals sue the Home Office for breaching their privacy and the Data Protection Act.
Mr Ruffley added: ‘This shambles proves this accident-prone Home Secretary hasn’t even got a grip of what goes on in her own building. Taxpayers will be absolutely outraged if they are made to pick up the bill for compensation to serious criminals.’
It is the latest in a string of cases where the Government has lost highly-sensitive data, most seriously the personal details of 25million child benefit claimants.
The latest shambles centres on a Whitehall project known as JTrack, to share details of the country’s worst offenders.
A private firm working on the project, PA Consulting, was sent the convicts’ personal details by the Home Office. Continue reading
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