Data breaches at HMRC increase

Date: 20th August 2008

There have been more security breaches at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) since the lost data discs scandal, it has been revealed.

An answer to a written parliamentary question showed that there has been an average of ten breaches a day since October last year - up from eight per day in the previous year, the Daily Mail calculated.

These include the losses of computers containing information about small businesses and members of the public.

In total, the government revealed that there were 1,993 breaches of security reported at HMRC between October 2007 and June 24th, 2008.

Treasury minister Jane Kennedy commented: "This high level of reporting reflects the increased awareness of staff to all forms of security following the child benefit data in loss in October 2007.

"HMRC takes any security incident report seriously and deals with each one appropriately in accordance with its departmental guidance and procedures."

However, Conservative Treasury spokesman Philip Hammond told the newspaper: "How can the government claim to be taking data security seriously when the number of breaches at the Revenue has actually increased?"