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Laptop stolen from Cabinet member

17/06/2008

The government has been forced to admit another security breach today.

A laptop has been stolen from the office of Hazel Blears, secretary for local government, with security information on it.

The information is understood to relate to defence and extremism and was stolen from Ms Blears' constituency offices in Salford.

It's possible Ms Blears broke regulations in the handling of sensitive information.

The police are now investigating the incident.

This latest revelation could cause considerably more damage to the government as the data belonged to a member of the Cabinet.

The event is the third in less than a week to involve the loss of sensitive information by the government. Last wednesday documents containing intelligence on terrorist groups were left on a train by a senior civil servant. This was quickly followed by more sensitive information being found on a train heading to Waterloo station.