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Darling says 25m records 'lost' Darling admits 25m records lost
(30 minutes later)
Alistair Darling has blamed mistakes by junior officials at HM Revenue and Customs after details of 25 million child benefit recipients were lost.Alistair Darling has blamed mistakes by junior officials at HM Revenue and Customs after details of 25 million child benefit recipients were lost.
The Chancellor said information, including bank details of 7m families, had been sent on discs to the National Audit office by unrecorded delivery.The Chancellor said information, including bank details of 7m families, had been sent on discs to the National Audit office by unrecorded delivery.
Mr Darling said it was "an extremely serious failure". The discs had never arrived at their destination, Mr Darling told MPs.
The banks have said the missing data is not enough to access accounts on its own and there is no evidence of fraud. He apologised for what he said was "an extremely serious failure" but insisted people were not at risk from ID fraud.
The chairman of Revenue and Customs, Paul Gray, resigned earlier. The package was not recorded or registered Alistair DarlingChancellor class="" href="/1/hi/uk_politics/7104115.stm">Point-by-point: Darling class="" href="/1/hi/uk_politics/7103828.stm">Q&A: Records lost
Revenue and Customs says it does not think the records - names, addresses, date of birth, national insurance numbers and bank accounts - have fallen into the wrong hands. The records include parents' and children's names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit and national insurance numbers and in some cases, bank or building society details.
Police inquiries He said the missing data was not enough to access accounts on its own but anyone who thought they had been the victim of fraud would be reimbursed by the banks.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said he understood ministers had been aware of the problem for nine to 10 days. He said a police investigation had been launched into what he described as a "deeply regrettable incident," which is the latest and most serious in a string of mistakes with data at Revenue and Customs.
The Metropolitan Police have confirmed they are "making inquiries" into the discs. 'Not recorded'
A source close to the Child Benefits Agency has told the BBC that they understand a courier was carrying the disc between its headquarters in Washington, Tyne and Wear and London when it went missing. An internal inquiry has begun. The chairman of Revenue and Customs, Paul Gray, resigned earlier after the incident emerged.
Mr Darling is expected to outline the measures taken to protect those whose data has been lost and explain any delay in making the matter public. Briefing MPs on the incident, Mr Darling said the information had been transferred at a junior level in breach of HMRC's procedures.
CHILD BENEFIT Available to the parents, normally mother, of every child in UK under 16Older children in full-time education still eligibleTaken up by almost 100%It amounts to £18.10 a week for a first-born childFor subsequent children - it amounts to £12.10 a week class="" href="/1/hi/uk_politics/7103828.stm">Q&A: Lost benefit records "Contrary to all HMRC standing proceedures two password protected discs containing a full copy of HMRC's entire data in relation to the payment of child benefit was sent to the National Audit Office by HMRC's internal postal system operated by the courier TNT.
The resignation of Mr Gray was accepted because discs had been transported in breach of rules governing data protection. "The package was not recorded or registered."
In a letter to Revenue and Customs staff, he said: "This is not the way I would have planned to organise my departure from HMRC. "Mr Speaker, it appears that the data has failed to reach the addressee at the NAO.
"I had hoped to be around for a while longer, and to have had the continuing privilege of leading HMRC towards the vision we have been developing. "Mr Speaker I also have to tell the house that on finding that the package had not arrived at the NAO a further copy of this data was sent - this time by registered post which did arrive at the NAO However, again HMRC should never have let this happen."
"But I am extremely proud of what all of you in the organisation have achieved during my time as deputy chairman and chairman." 'Get a grip'
'Difficult job' The data was sent on October 18 and senior management at HMRC were told it was missing on November 8 and the Chancellor on November 10, said Mr Darling.
He was defended by Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the FDA, the union for senior public servants, who said while there had been a "serious operational error" Mr Grey "was in no way personally responsible". Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said the government needed to "get a grip" and deliver a basic level of competence.
"His decision to take on this accountability is an example of British public service at its best," he said. He said it was the "final blow for the ambitions of this government to create a national ID database" as "they simply can not be trusted with people's personal information".
Home Office minister Liam Byrne said: "I think that the department does a difficult job and I think it does it well - the chancellor will set out a full statement and a full account to the background of this story a little later on." Lib Dem acting leader Vince Cable said it was now the Treasury and not the Home Office that was "not fit for purpose".
But Conservative MP Michael Fallon, who is vice-chairman of the Treasury select committee, said there had been "persistent rumours that all is not well at Revenue and Customs". He asked why the information had been sent on discs through the internal mail when it should have been sent electronically.
Nigel Evans, head of the Parliamentary All Party Group on Identity Fraud, said he wanted to know exactly what information was on the disc - such as bank account numbers and sort codes - and whether it was encrypted or password protected. 'Searching questions'
'Horrendous problem' Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said: "This is an extremely serious and disturbing security breach. This is not the first time that we have been made aware of breaches at the HM Revenue and Customs - we are already investigating two other breaches.
The Tory MP also said the chancellor would have to explain why he did not immediately publicise the problem: "He should have told the public straight away in order that they could have taken precautions against anyone's information being used by ID fraudsters." "Incidents like these illustrate that any system is only as good as its weakest link. The alarm bells must now ring in every organisation about the risks of not protecting people's personal information properly.
And for the Liberal Democrats, Chris Huhne told the BBC: "It is a horrendous problem, it's one of the biggest failures in a major government department that I can remember. "As I highlighted earlier this year, it is imperative that organisations earn public trust and confidence by addressing security and other data protection safeguards with the utmost vigour."
HAVE YOUR SAY What a complete shambles.... and I fear things will only get worse once the loathsome ID cards are introduced Anthony H, London class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=3839&edition=1">Send us your comments Mr Thomas welcomed the Chancellor's announcement of an independent review of the incident by Kieran Poynter of PricewaterhouseCoopers and said he would decide on further action once he has received the report.
"It's an enormous delivery problem and I think that clearly that's been recognised by the head of HMRC when he resigned... I would be surprised if we did not see ministerial heads rolling as well." "Searching questions need to be answered about systems, procedures and human error inside both HMRC and NAO," said Mr Thomas.
Customs and Excise was merged with the Inland Revenue in 2005, creating the biggest department in Whitehall. It was also ordered to reduce its 94,000 total staff by 25,000. The prime minister's official spokeswoman said Gordon Brown has "full confidence" in Mr Darling. She added that Mr Darling has not offered to resign.
It is run by an executive board, but the chancellor is responsible to Parliament for its operations.
It collects taxes and other government receipts worth about £400bn a year, as well as administering benefits and tax credits, which require it to process large amounts of personal data.