Fit for purpose?

Another day, another data loss scandal.  The culprit this time?  The Home Office – or rather the private consultancy firm entrusted by the Home Office with the details of over 100,000 criminals, and which subsequently misplaced the memory stick they were contained on.  Not that that absolves Jacqui Smith – or others in her department – of any blame.  You’d have thought that a department formerly described as “not fit for purpose” would have introduced watertight data security procedures by now.

Smith can count herself extremely lucky that Parliament’s not sitting at the moment.  But this is still far from ideal news for the Government, in the run-up to Brown’s autumn relaunch.  And – as John Redwood points out over at his blog – it should place even bigger question marks over the plan to introduce a central ID database.