It is staggering incompetence. Data files of prison employees was lost in July 2007. A year later, the data breach is realized - in July 2008. Now, beginning the second week of September 2008, the Justice Secretary is finding out about the incident:

“Although the prison service was informed of the loss in July, Straw, who is the minister responsible, was only made aware of it yesterday when he was contacted by a Sunday newspaper.

The hard disk containing personal details of up to 5,000 staff, including probation workers, was mislaid by a computing firm working for the Ministry of Justice more than a year ago.”

link: Personal details of 5,000 jail staff lost

additional link: Data on 5,000 justice staff lost

The very security of these employees and their families are at risk and, over a year later, they are informed. This is even beyond George Orwell’s imagination. Perhaps the Keystone Cops can be called upon to investigate.

Catherine Forsythe