According to today’s Western Mail the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has taken action against Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust for breaching the Data Protection Act after a laptop containing details of about 5,000 patients was stolen.
It is believed that the computer, which was not encrypted, was taken outside normal working hours. It contained the names and addresses of some 5,000 hospital patients and, in some cases, confidential medical records.
The paper catalogues just some of the missing data scandals of recent months:
The news of the missing data is the latest in a long line of data- related bungles, which have threatened the confidentiality and security of thousands across Britain.
In May last year, the medical records of 38,000 NHS patients were revealed to have gone missing. The information, including details of drinking habits, sexual diseases and disabilities, was on a computer disc that vanished en-route to a medical centre.
Only a few months later, sensitive documents containing information about the financial affairs of up to 2,000 people were lost by civil servants at the HM Revenue and Customs offices in Birmingham.
The package contained tax records and included National Insurance numbers and addresses.
In November 2007, two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 vanished.
The Child Benefit data on them included names, addresses, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers and bank details of 25 million people.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Cardiff Central MP Jenny Willott, who has campaigned against lax government handling of sensitive data, commented:
“It is shocking to have such sensitive information and not to have it encrypted. It shows a complete lack of sensitivity to members of the public who want their personal details to be treated with the utmost security.
“The Government has an appalling record of keeping personal data secure. I would think that the health trust would at least have learned from this and made an attempt to keep data encrypted.”
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Another day and another data loss, is there any point anyone guarding there info when the state loses it?
No doubt we will have the local platitudes from libel case losing MP Paul Flynn about how no one has lost any money due to this.
Never mind the fact that the state is supposed to have a duty of care with regards our information.