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Government mislays personal
details of half the nation
Sumeet Desai
Reuters
Tuesday November 20, 2007
The personal details of half of Britain have been mislaid by
the government, Chancellor Alistair Darling said on Tuesday, in
another major blow to an administration reeling from the Northern
Rock banking debacle.
The Conservatives accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government
of laying 25 million people open to identity theft and bank fraud,
ridiculing its management of the country.
The head of the tax authority, Paul Gray, quit earlier and Darling
described the incident as a "serious failure" on the
part of the revenue collector, already embroiled in two other
breaches of security.
(Article continues below)
Darling told parliament two discs containing information on 25
million Britons had disappeared after being sent through HMRC's
courier, Dutch mail and parcel company TNT NV, and a police investigation
was underway. There was no sign of fraud at present, he said.
"The missing information contains details of all child benefit
recipients: records for 25 million individuals and 7.25 million
families," Darling said.
"These records include the recipient and their children's
names, addresses and dates of birth, it includes Child Benefit
numbers, National Insurance Numbers, and, where relevant, bank
or building society account details."
Bookmakers cut the odds of Darling resigning to 3-1 from 8-1.
Full
article here.
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