UK Taxman Loses ID Data

The New Labour Government of Gordon Brown has lost the personal and financial data of no fewer than 25 million Britons. For those with a statistical bent, that is close to half the nation, and is easily a majority of adults. Paul Gray, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Chairman, has resigned over the matter. While this journal applauds his decency and sense of honor, there is no end to the trouble this will cause average Britons.

As reported in The Times “The addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers and bank account details of every child benefit claimant in the country went missing when two CDs were placed in the unregistered post last month. A junior employee at the HMRC office in Tyne & Wear sent the unrecorded parcel and it has not been seen since.” Among the missing data are those related to one Gordon Brown of 10 Downing Street, London.

The CDs haven't been recovered, but there is no evidence that they have fallen into the hands of the Mafia either. The problem is a potential threat of identity theft rather than a real one, so far. If it were an isolated incident, one would be upset but could understand that accidents happen. That isn't the case. As The Times also wrote, “Yesterday’s announcement that two CDs bearing private information had been lost in the post was the latest of a series of lapses, including a similar smaller breach of data security last month and the loss of 41 departmental laptops containing sensitive information.”

Tory leader David Cameron, whose details are also in the missing post, said, “It’s all very well to say we’ll hold an inquiry, but the Government has had ten years to sort this out,. I have to say if a junior official in an organisation can access so much information and send it not once, twice but three times - that is evidence of systemic failure.” And so it is.

This journal has opposed UK ID cards for years, and continues to do so. The inability of the government to handle delicate personal data proves that giving that sort of information to Whitehall is more likely to undermine than protect the security of the nation. It's time to give up on the UK's national identity card -- the government can't be trusted to take care of the data it wants..

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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