Response
Darling stated that there was no indication that the details had fallen into criminal hands, but he urged those affected to monitor their bank accounts. He said "If someone is the innocent victim of fraud as a result of this incident, people can be assured they have protection under the Banking Code so they will not suffer any financial loss as a result." HMRC then set up a Child Benefit Helpline for those concerned about the data loss.
The incident was a breach of the UK's Data Protection Act and resulted in the resignation of HMRC chairman Paul Gray. He was subsequently found to be working at Cabinet Office. The Metropolitan Police and the Independent Police Complaints Commission both investigated the security breach, and uniformed police officers investigated HMRC offices. The loss led to much criticism by the Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne. Osborne said:
| “ | Let us be clear about the scale of this catastrophic mistake— the names, the addresses and the dates of birth of every child in the country are sitting on two computer discs that are apparently lost in the post, and the bank account details and National Insurance numbers of ten million parents, guardians and carers have gone missing. | ” |
In addition he said that it was the "final blow for the ambitions of this government to create a national ID database". Cable also criticised the use of disks in the modern age of electronic data transfer. Spokespersons for Gordon Brown, however, said that the Prime Minister fully supported Darling, and said that Darling had not expressed any intention to resign.
The general reaction of the public was one of anger and worry. Banks, individuals, businesses and government departments became more vigilant over data fraud and identity theft and the government pledged to be more careful with data. The public and media was particularly angry over the fact that the data was not registered or recorded, and that it was not encrypted.
Nick Assinder, a political correspondent at the BBC, expressed the opinion that he believed Darling to be "on borrowed time". George Osborne, who questioned whether Darling was "up to the job", suggested that it would be a matter of days before a decision was made regarding Darling's future.
TNT stated that, as the delivery was not recorded, it would not be possible to even ascertain if it had actually been sent, let alone where it went.
Read more about this topic: Loss Of United Kingdom Child Benefit Data (2007)
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