HMRC calm as search continues
The HMRC debacle continues as the two CDs remain missing
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Thursday, 22, Nov 2007 08:44
Two lost CDs containing child benefit records affecting 25 million people have probably not left government property, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) believes.
It was confirmed today that no signature was required for the package in which the missing CDs were sent to the National Audit Office (NAO) and that successive searches of NAO buildings have failed to locate them.
Despite this HMRC said in a statement on its website it believed the missing CDs had not found their way into criminal hands.
"The copy of the data is likely to still be on government property - we have no evidence to suggest the data is in the possession of anyone else," it said.
Meanwhile correspondence between HMRC and the NAO suggests a junior manager was responsible for the data security breach.
An exchange of emails between the two offices suggests an HMRC official kept confidential details on the transferred CDs to save money.
In a March 13th email an NAO official requested: "I do not need address, bank or parent details in the download – are these removable to make the file smaller?"
The "junior HMRC manager" replied: "I must stress we must make use of data we hold and not overburden the business by asking them to run additional data scans/filters that may incur a cost to the department."
The correspondence appears to signal HMRC are at fault rather than the NAO. On October 2nd the NAO's audit principal requested copies of the data from HMRC, asking: "Please could you ensure that the CDs are delivered to NAO as safely as possible due to their content."
Observers are suggesting the correspondence may open the government up to political responsibility because of recent funding cuts to HMRC.
Opposition politicians have suggested its underfunded and increasingly disorganised state contributed to the loss of the two CDs.
"What people have suggested is that this is a department that is not being properly run," shadow chancellor George Osborne told BBC News 24.
Earlier he stressed: "This was systemic failure not individual error by a junior official."