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Brown alerted to HMRC data risk in 2004

Kable

Published: 10 Dec 2007 15:36 GMT

The prime minister was warned about inadequate data-protection procedures years ago, it has emerged.

Gordon Brown was told three years ago that weak data-protection procedures governing the child-benefit database made fraud or mistakes more likely and potentially undetectable, according to The Register.

Obvious flaws in working practices, such as the ability of junior officials to download the whole database and the use of unencrypted discs, were also highlighted.

Internal auditors examined procedures in March 2004. Their findings were written up by Treasury risk manager Richard Fennelly in a letter.

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The letter, obtained by News of the World, made clear the very problems which led to the loss of 25 million individuals' records and calls into question government claims that the loss was the fault of human error by one junior official.

Fennelly wrote: "Fraudulent/malicious activity was not being detected... Live support staff had root access and could do anything without being detected, with obvious risks."

Fennelly also warned that there was "no encryption between certain elements in the system".

In a statement issued to GC News, shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling said: "This document blows apart Gordon Brown's claims in Parliament that this was a one-off incident."

"Now we know that internal watchdogs in the government were warning three years ago that the child-benefit database was at risk," Grayling said.

"Because no-one took any action, we now face a situation where millions of bank account details and information about all our children has been lost," Grayling added.