'Remove CD writers from HMRC'

Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming has called for the CD writers in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to be removed after the Government admitted last week's incident could happen again.

The MP for Birmingham Yardley spoke out during a House of Commons debate today on the accidental loss of 25 million personal records by HMRC, in which the Government said it could not guarantee unencrypted discs would not be sent out in future.

Speaking to the Treasury ministers, Hemming said: "It is quite simple, if [HMRC workers] do not have the facility to copy everyone's confidential data onto a CD then they won't do it."

Hemming, who is special advisor to Vince Cable, acting leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, has also written to Jane Kennedy, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, asking for clarity on whose data has been lost.

"Although people have been written to, it has still not been made sufficiently explicitly clear publicly that it is only those bank account details that receive child benefit that have been lost. This must be made clear and should have been explicit at the start," he said.

Cable has now asked Hemming to lead an investigation into the data protection issues surrounding Government databases, including the ID card project and the NHS Spine, because he has the technical background as a cryptographer and IT specialist with a career writing on issues around international security.

Cable said that with centralised Government databases, "big is not beautiful " because the more information that is concentrated in one place the greater the potential security risks.

See also:

Security checks halt ContactPoint

Database of children's details to undergo security checks following HMRC disc fiasco  27 Nov 2007

Children fear database security is inadequate

Report reveals youngsters' concerns about information held on Contactpoint  21 Nov 2007

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