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    Govt departments have lost over 1,000 laptops

    Wed 02-Apr-2008

    Government departments have misplaced over 1,000 laptops and almost 500 mobile phones since 2001, new figures have revealed.

    Last week's latest admission by the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Berr) came in response to a parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather.

    Berr admitted its staff had lost or had stolen 96 laptops and 82 mobile phones since 2001.

    The Telegraph reports that last week a disc marked "Home Office - confidential" appeared in a laptop that had been bought on eBay and taken into a computer shop near Bolton.

    In a statement, Ms Teather said: "If these laptops contained personal information on members of the public then the government need to own up.

    "It is time we had a complete rethink on the way electronic equipment is protected."

    The BBC reported in January that the information watchdog was to question the Ministry of Defence over its data protection policies after it lost the personal details of 600,000 people.
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