Mary Reid

My jaw dropped when I heard the news on the radio. It seems that someone in HM Revenues and Customs was asked to send the details of every family in the UK who receive child benefit, that is, anyone with children under the age of 16, to the National Audit Office.  The data included name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details.

And how did they do it? - by copying all that data onto two CDs, popping them both into the same jiffy bag and sending it by courier, without recording or registering it.  It did not arrive.

If possible, the story gets worse. The data was sent on 18th October but senior management were only told it was missing on 10th November, and the news has only become public today.

That means that the banking details of 7.5 million families - think about it!- plus the personal details of every child in the country, have been out there somewhere for a full month.

And this is the Government that thinks we will trust it with ID cards?