They’ve lost half the country’s bank details, can’t keep track of our cars, publish doctors’ intimate personal details online, drop customs documents in the street, misplace laptops with personal data on them, and don’t even bother with passwords on their computers.

They lost this most recent data by sending it on couriered CD-Roms, which is certainly against policy, and possibly illegal. It’s also the way they lost Standard Life and another banks’ customer details earlier this month, and UBS’s customer details in 2005.

Of course, we already know that Government can’t learn from mistakes, since they rehired the company behind the ‘not fit for purpose’ MTAS computer system.

Now they want us to trust them with our health records and even our identities.

Is this Government serious?

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Is it fair to blame the government, though? The problem appears to lie with HMRC, and whose stupid idea it was to send the entire database dump just through a private courier.

So, it wasn’t the government who cocked up, but HMRC.

It’s certainly not an excuse for the Tories to use in the Commons.

» This comment was received at 22:38 on 20 November 07

Yes, it is fair to blame the government.

Error after error - including ones very similar to this - have happened repeatedly at HMRC, and whilst the organisation itself is separate from Government, it is overseen by the Treasury.

The Treasury failed to intervene in any meaningful way when the earlier errors were made - the sort of think I’d have thought that ‘overseeing’ the organisation would involve - and now they’ve been caught out.

To say that the Government can’t be criticised for this is like saying it can’t be criticised for any aspect of policy implementation, as none of this is done by Government itself.

It’s like saying that the Government can’t be blamed for the MMC Computer Problems because the software was designed by Methods Consulting, which is separate from government. Or that it can be blamed for falling conviction rates because the Police are separate from Government. Or that Tesco can’t be held responsible for sour milk because the dairies are a separate organisation.

These organisations are acting on behalf of the Government, and so the Government is ultimately responsible for their action.

» This comment was received at 16:58 on 21 November 07

This post has been referenced by another on this site:
sjhoward.co.uk » Brown struggles to be heard

[...] 25m peoples’ bank details lost in the post… [...]

» This pingback was received at 22:40 on 26 November 07

This post has been referenced by another on this site:
sjhoward.co.uk » Useless computers cost £2bn

[...] computer system which is being rewritten as it was ‘not fit for purpose’, and from the loss of half the country’s personal data to the national police website which never worked, it [...]

» This pingback was received at 10:52 on 06 January 08

This post has been referenced by another on this site:
sjhoward.co.uk » Jeremy Clarkson: Idiot

[...] Clarkson, publishing his bank details in The Sun after half the country’s bank details went missing: All you’ll be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out. Honestly, [...]

» This pingback was received at 16:05 on 07 January 08

This post has been referenced by another post on someone else's blog:
Barnhard Blog » Blog Archive » Data Retention

[...] another example from the british government, of how easy things can get screwed up.. “Losing” [...]

» This pingback was received at 22:24 on 20 May 08

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