Livin' the life...

“The government’s “basic competence” has been questioned by the Tories after the loss in the post of computer discs with 25m people’s personal details on them. ... MISSING DATA INCLUDES… National insurance number, Name, address and birth date, Partner’s details, Names, sex and age of children, Bank/savings account details” (BBC). (Also, see video.)

Fraud? Identity theft anyone? Seriously though, this is horrible. In the video, I definitely admire Chancellor Darling for standing and giving that report to the House (then again that was probably a prerequisite for keeping his job!), but as one can see from the subsequent comments, he was not received well at all.

It'll be really interesting to see how this pans out even though "he [Chancellor Darling] reassured those affected that police had no reason to believe the discs had found their way into the wrong hands, nor did they have any evidence of it being used for "fraudulent purposes or criminal activity."" (BBC).. Let's hope so!

One thing that is of real concern is that really, it may just be the 'junior' member of staff who messed up HOWEVER this has produced a ripple effect of mammoth proportions, and has made the HMRC chairman resign, and now has the Chancellor in the hot seat. Got to love chain of command/responsibility eh?

On the bright side, "Mr Darling said that anyone who lost money as a result of any misuse of the data would be covered for losses under the banking code." (BBC)

[All quotes unless otherwise specified come from the Ministers under fire over records BBC article.]