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Northern Ireland orders data-protection review

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Published: 22 Nov 2007 11:02 GMT

The Northern Ireland finance minister has ordered an immediate review of data-protection systems in the Northern Ireland civil service.

The move, announced on Wednesday, comes in the wake of Alistair Darling's admission that data containing the personal information of millions of people across the UK who receive child-benefit allowances has been lost by HM Revenue & Customs.

Internal advice on how to protect citizens' personal details was issued to Northern Ireland departments during the summer. This latest review will assess the effectiveness of measures already in place.

"The need for vigilance within our civil service was reinforced last August through internal guidance issued to all departments regarding the potential for the possible compromise of personal information," said Peter Robinson MP.

"Given the gravity of [recent] events and the need to reassure the public, and indeed our own staff, that proper systems of information management and control are in place and functioning properly, I have instigated an immediate four-week review," said Robinson.

"The review will examine in close detail the effectiveness of personal data-security systems across the Northern Ireland departments, in order to provide reassurance to the public that their personal information is being protected properly," added Robinson.

Despite the cross-department review, social development minister Margaret Ritchie considered the HMRC breach so severe that she has ordered her own review of all record-management systems within her domain.

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"I am deeply concerned about the loss of these computer discs and for the hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Ireland who have been affected," said Ritchie. "The public are entitled to expect that their personal details are secured in a watertight fashion."

"While this is a matter for HMRC, I want to do all in my power to ensure that an incident like this does not happen in my department. Be it in the Social Security Agency, Child Support Agency or Housing Executive, my department is responsible for hundreds of thousands of personal details. I have, therefore, asked my officials to carry out an extensive review and audit of their data-protection procedures and record-management systems to give our customers reassurance that the security of their information is maintained at all times."

The cross-department review, announced by Robinson, will be carried out by the Northern Ireland civil service chief information officer, Bill McCluggage.

The announcement of the Northern Ireland review came as Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered a similar review of UK government system security.