A computer a day is lost by UK government

20:30 29th December 2008

It has been revealed that the government has been losing one computer a day since 2002.

Almost 3,000 computers have either been lost or stolen by Whitehall and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is proving the worst offender, accounting for 866 of the stolen laptops, while 178 more have simply gone missing.

The figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats during Parliamentary questions suggest staff at Whitehall need IT training to ensure the security of sensitive data does not continue to be breached.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Paul Holmes was responsible for bringing the figures to light and commented: "Everyone understands that things go astray but it is truly staggering that over the last seven years a laptop has been lost every working day across government."

In January 2008 the MoD confirmed two high-profile cases of laptops holding sensitive information being stolen while in the care of MoD officials.