The identities of hundreds of people in witness protection programmes are contained on the child benefit discs lost in the post by HM Revenue and Customs, it has been claimed.
Up to 350 people who have been given new names and have been re-homed after giving evidence against criminals are among the 25 million parents on the child benefit register, The Daily Telegraph reported.
It said both the old and new identities were featured on the discs, potentially putting their lives at risk and raising the prospect of a costly exercise to hide them again.
Chancellor Alistair Darling revealed last month that the names, addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers and bank account details of every child benefit claimant in the country had been lost.
The Tories said it would be "alarming" if the details of witness protection scheme members were among those lost.
"The Government owes an absolute duty to protect witnesses in major criminal trials who are part of the witness protection scheme," shadow chancellor George Osborne added.
The Ministry of Justice referred questions to the Metropolitan Police, which in turn directed inquiries to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). Nobody at Soca was available to comment.
On Tuesday, MPs heard that further cases of individuals' confidential details being lost by official bodies have emerged in the wake of the data loss fiasco.
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said that a number of public bodies and private companies had contacted him over the fortnight since the HMRC incident was revealed to confess that they too had lost data.
None of the new admissions were on the scale of the "shocking" incident at HMRC, Mr Thomas told the House of Commons Justice Committee.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20071 ... e80_1.html
Alarming, considering that they want more information about us for national id cards, and they can't keep this info safe
Basel
