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MoD says 11,000 ID cards have been lost or stolen

12/03/2008

The Ministry of Defence has revealed that 11,000 military ID cards have been lost in the past two years.

The MoD's revelation, which came in a written answer in the House of Commons, is to increase public scrutiny on the government's plans for a national ID card scheme after a series of data security problems.

The personal details of some 25 million child benefit claimants were lost by HM Revenue and Customs staff last year and in January a laptop containing the private data of 150,000 Armed Forces applicants was stolen from the car of a Royal Navy officer.

And with the new revelation that 4,433 ID cards went missing in 2006 and a further 6,812 disappeared last year, government plans to improve national security by imposing a national ID card database are likely to come in for further criticism.

In a statement, the MoD said: "We take the loss of military ID cards very seriously, and we are taking steps to improve general security awareness.

"Military ID cards form one part of the security measures we have in place. They have photographic ID on them, so it would be difficult for them to be used by individuals they have not been assigned to."

Conservative party defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said the MoD's disclosure was "another example of the government's scandalous disregard for the security of our citizens and yet another reason why the public has no confidence in the government's ID card plans for the rest of the population".