Birmingham Post: More personal details go missing on 'lost' discs

By Neil Connor Chief Reporter

A parcel delivery firm was forced to apologise last night after a package containing personal details of more than 7,000 motorists was lost at its Midland sorting office.

In the latest security breach to hit a Government department, a total of 7,685 vehicle-keepers' addresses, names and car particulars were lost at a Parcelforce depot in Coventry.

They were being processed at the centre after the Driver and Vehicle Agency in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, posted two uncoded discs to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing offices in Swansea, Wales.

The details of Northern Irish drivers were sent in response to requests from a number of vehicle manufacturers who wished to contact motorists about faults or potential faults in certain vehicle models.

As Northern Ireland Environment Minister Arlene Foster confirmed a full-scale police investigation, management in Coleraine, Co Londonderry, admitted the blunder.

And last night a spokesman for Parcelforce Worldwide, which delivers more than 50 million parcels a year, said the company "apologises very sincerely for the loss of two packages".

Brendan Magee, chief executive of the DVA in Northern Ireland, said: "We have to hold our hands up, it should have been encrypted. Our own internal review is under way in relation to the HMRC that has been identified."

Officials realised last week that the data, sent on November 20 and 21, had gone missing. Representatives from Information Commissioner Richard Thomas' office have been informed.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "It is shocking that the public have been let down yet again."

It was also disclosed yesterday that confidential personal details of dozens of prisoners intended for Norfolk Police were wrongly delivered to a private company instead.

Also, trade unions on Merseyside revealed that personal details of 1,800 health authority staff had been accidentally sent out to a number of private firms.

And, in the private sector, the West Yorkshire-based Leeds Building Society confirmed it had warned its staff to be vigilant after personal information relating to each of its 1,000-strong workforce went missing.

It said the data was mislaid when its human resources department was moved during its continuing head office refurbishment.

The society, which is based in central Leeds, said there was no evidence the data had left the building.

The latest security breaches follow the loss by HM Revenue and Customs of two computer discs containing the entire child benefit database with details of 25 million people.

Earlier this month, the DVLA in Wales was said to have broken data protection rules when confidential documents were sent to the wrong motorists. The agency sent 1,215 questionnaires, including dates of birth and motoring offence records, and about 100 went to the wrong addresses.

Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers yesterday said: "It beggars belief that Labour is still losing CDs with thousands of people's personal data in the post. It looks like it has failed to learn anything from the HMRC catastrophe.

"Yet again we see Mr Brown's Government failing in its basic duty to run Government competently."