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Inquiry underway over prison staff data loss

08/09/2008

The government will brief the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) later today on how the details of up to 5,000 prison staff were allowed to go missing.

An ICO spokesperson said the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) had already been in touch over the loss of a hard drive in July 2007 which came to light over the weekend.

The News of the World newspaper obtained a letter from EDS to the prison service detailing the loss over the weekend. Justice secretary Jack Straw was only notified of the failure on Saturday.

Mr Straw has launched an inquiry into the latest data loss case and is thought to have demanded why he was not told of the mistake at the time.

Initially it was thought the drive contained the names, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and Prison Service employee numbers of 5,000 prison officers – but some of those affected were also administrative staff.

The loss occurred on the premises of contractor EDS, with whom the MoJ emphasised it was also in contact.

In a statement, Mr Straw said: "I am extremely concerned about this missing data. I was informed of its loss at lunchtime on Saturday and have ordered an urgent inquiry into the circumstances and the implications of the data loss and the level of risk involved.

"I have also asked for a report as to why I was not informed as soon as my department became aware of this issue. My officials are also in touch with EDS as part of these processes. We take these matters extremely seriously."