HMRC Data Loss - remove the CD Burners - more information required?

11.28.00pm GMT Wed 28th Nov 2007

John Hemming MP, special advisor to Vince Cable on Data Security and Data PRotection has called for the CD BUrners in HMRC to be removed. "It is quite simple", he said, "if they do not have the facility to copy everyone's confidential data onto a CD then they won't do it." He has asked a parliamentary question of the Treasury Ministers calling for the CD Burners to be removed.

John Hemming has also written to Jane Kennedy MP 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."

Vince Cable, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has asked John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley to lead an investigation into the data protection issues surrounding government databases, following the accidental loss of 25 million personal records by HMRC. John Hemming is a cryptographer and IT specialist with a career history writing on issues around international security. His company JHC is the largest involved in the IT of stock brokers settlement systems.

Vince Cable said; "I want John to look at the whole issue of centralised government databases. Big is not beautiful. The more information is concentrated the greater the risks. The HMRC leak has potentially very negative implications for confidence in the ID card project, the NHS 'Spine' and other systems. We need to understand what was not done and should have been done at HMRC and what are the wider lessons."

John Hemming has launched a review of Data Protection procedures for all government departments. "Frequently the Data Controller is the Secretary of State", he said, "I am unsure whether this is appropriate and whether they have sufficient management time to handle their duties seriously enough as well as the question as to whether they have the expertise."