23.08.08 HRMC ADMITS DATA LOSSES ARE INCREASING DESPITE CRITICISM

Data losses by HM Revenue & Customs continue to increase despite the furore last year over discs lost by the department. Responses to parlimentary written questions have revealed that data leakage from HMRC has not dropped, despite the scandal over the loss of discs containing the details of 25 million child benefit claimants last October.

Breaches relating to mobile phones and computers containing confidential numbers and information about the public have arisen to an average of ten a day, up from eight a day in the previous year.

In all,  there have been 1,993 data breaches since October 2007, with the one year figure likely to exceed 2,700.

The figures revealed a month after it was disclosed that the missing discs scandal cost the taxpayer £473,544 and raise questions about the merger of Revenue and Customs into a single department, believes Bruce Wilson, Tax Partner at Campbell Dallas Chartered Accountants in Glasgow.

"It is interesting that, in this day and age, with the Data Protection Act, nobody seems to be accountable for taking control of a situation in which a department that wants more and more personal information about us all but is ostensibly so cavalier with the information given to it."

However Treasury minister Jane Kennedy argued that the rise in the number of breaches reflected growing awareness among HRMC staff of the importance of reporting them.

Publication: The Scotsman

Date: 23rd August 2008