From children’s ward medical records found in a puddle, patients details being sent to wrong addresses to 100 floppy disks containing sensitive data about patients medical records lost, personal data loss seems relentless and it needs to stop.

The party is calling for the Labour-Plaid government to do more to ensure that personal data held by public authorities are kept safe. People, especially patients, have a right to expect their personal information held by public authorities to be treated with the utmost care as recent incidents over personal data loss are shocking and the degree of negligence in some cases is breathtaking.

The recent loss of data has already shaken the confidence of the people who use these services. We need assurances from the Welsh government, especially from the Health Minister that procedures have been put in place to ensure that future data losses do not occur.

We need a fundamental re-examination of how the NHS deals with personal data and I urge the Welsh government to consider our proposals to ensure that the loss of confidential data is Wales is minimised.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats four priorities to stem the loss of confidential data are:

1. The Health Minister should publish minimum standards for the protection of data on mobile devices and ensure that all NHS staff are aware of their particular responsibilities.

2. As a general principle, patient records should not be stored on mobile devices and strict rules must apply to control the copying of data. Any exceptions must be authorised after a risk assessment and only where it is unavoidable for the completion of work duties and the provision of care.

3. All mobile data devices should be protected through appropriate security controls regardless of the sensitivity of the information held. This includes the use of authentication, encryption, and other technical separation controls as well as registration and allocation of devices to an ‘owner’.

4. Lapses in standards of care should be regarded as potential serious misconduct.

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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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A series of Freedom of Information requests to Government departments and agencies from the Data Protection Company, Garlik, revealed that while millions of pieces of personal information held by the Government were wrong, most departments had no policy or budget to correct such mistakes.

Under the Coroners and Justice Bill, starting in the Commons on Monday, the Government is proposing to allow personal information held by the Government about members of the public to be shared between departments and agencies, without express permission.

Commenting, Jenny Willott, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet Office Minister and MP for Cardiff Central, said:

“The rampant errors in Government personal information records will make these proposals a disaster.

“Before the Government even contemplates mass personal data-sharing, they must put in place a system to correct existing mistakes and set a gold standard for recording personal information accurately in the future.”

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