Criminals’ details go missing in latest data loss in UK

Details of 33,000 serious offenders and people on drug rehabilitation programmes were also saved to the stick.

The Home Office said it had ordered an immediate investigation into the loss, which Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve described as a massive failure of duty.

It follows the loss of secret intelligence files, information about millions of child benefit claimants and details about learner drivers.

The Home Office said the missing memory stick contained the names and date of birth of every prison inmate. It also had the names, addresses and birthdate of 33,000 people with six or more convictions.

A full investigation is being conducted, a Home Office spokesman said. Police and the Information Commissioner (Richard Thomas) have been informed.

The Home Office said it had encrypted the data before passing it to a contractor, PA Consulting Group, a London-based management consultancy firm.

The information was then saved to a memory stick which was lost. No one at PA Consulting Group was available to comment.

The Conservatives said the government was unfit to be charged with protecting our safety and said the loss could lead to prisoners trying to claim compensation.

The British taxpayer will be absolutely outraged if they are made to pick up the bill for compensation to serious criminals, he said in a statement.

Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee, said ministers must explain how the data loss happened.

The implications are very, very serious indeed, he told BBC radio. I wrote to (Home Secretary) Jacqui Smith today to say that I am deeply disappointed with what’s happened … and asking for information as to how this happened.

Last year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered an urgent review after the tax authority HM Revenue and Customs said it had lost data on 25 million people, exposing them to the risk of identity theft and fraud.