Whitehall has never been known to be at the cutting edge of technology. The mandarin masters of SW1 have had more than their fair share of tech blunders over the years, from accidentally uploading data about the nuclear subs to the failed NHS ‘super computer.’ And it seems that, for all the numerous headline-grabbing cock-ups, things are getting little better in the monolithic ministries which govern our lives.
For now it transpires that nearly 5,000 laptops, mobile phones, memory sticks and external hard drives have gone missing over the past five years by ten government department departments, according to a series of parliamentary questions tabled by Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney. Despite repeated warnings about the dangers of sensitive information, the overall number of reported lost or stolen such items rose by 20 per cent between 2018 and 2021, with some 1,023 such items lost in the past 12 months alone.
The majority of these departments did not break their figures down into those items which were stolen and others which were simply lost. One which did was the Department of International Trade, charged with the responsibility of bolstering Britain’s economic security. Its officials have admitted that more than half of its missing laptops – 30 out of 56 – since 2018 were stolen with a further 33 of its 207 mobile phones also having been nicked too, prompting fears as to the safety of such equipment. In the same period, the Treasury and Business Department reported 175 items stolen.
‘Stealing physical assets containing sensitive and secret information will always remain a key part of the foreign intelligence toolkit’ said Sam Armstrong, communications director of the Henry Jackson Society. ‘With one stolen laptop, the damage can be easily contained. With hundreds, it is literally impossible to say which have been lost through carelessness and which might have fallen into the wrong hands. Parliament now has a right to see what if any assessment has been made of the national security risks from this governmental clumsiness.’
The Ministry of Justice – charged with the administration of crime and punishment – has proved to be the worst department in this regard, with 126 laptops, 202 mobiles and six memory sticks all disappearing in 2021. Noticeably this figure applies to just the civil servants, with a further 4,140 low cost mobile phones being lost or stolen from the Covid-era National Probation/Community Rehabilitation Services scheme since March 2020. The Ministry of Defence meanwhile admitted that 25 hard drives and 79 memory sticks were among the 266 items that went walkabouts this year, bringing the total to 1,477 items since 2017.
Ministers refused to break down these figures for the Prime Minister’s Office, only telling Olney the figures for the overall Cabinet Office which includes No. 10. The 9,248 staff working here have had 553 items of kit lost or stolen since the 2017 snap election, with officials nevertheless insisting that ‘there has been no data loss or compromise as a result of these losses.’
Here’s hoping such disappearances aren’t related to all those mysterious pictures of Downing Street parties which keep popping up in the press.
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