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Home Office data loss included drug records

Kable

Published: 27 Aug 2009 08:46 BST

The Home Office has confirmed that the volume of data on a lost memory stick was much larger than originally reported.

Its resource-accounts for 2008-09 show that 377,000 records were on the device, lost in August 2008 by contractor PA Consulting. The department had previously said the lost memory stick held information on 127,000 people.

A spokesperson told GC News that the extra 250,000 is data on uses of the Drug Interventions Programme. The figure is an estimate of the number of times the programme was accessed by individuals, and the actual number of people whose data was lost will not be as high as the number of records.

The users are recorded only by their initials, rather than their full names, so the personal data is limited in nature.

The original figures included Police National Computer data on about 33,000 people with at least six recordable offences in the past year, 10,000 prolific and other priority offenders, and all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales.

The Home Office spokesperson said the lost memory stick has not been recovered.

The department fired PA Consulting over the incident. However, the firm was still the department's top earning consultancy last year, receiving £24.5m in 2008-09 for its work on the National Identity Scheme and the Interception Modernisation Programme, according to recently released figures.