37,500 in Wales on stolen MoD laptop

Jan 29 2008 by Blair Wood, Western Mail

MORE THAN 37,500 people in Wales had their personal details lost when a Ministry of Defence laptop was stolen a fortnight ago, it emerged last night.

The MoD released these latest figures in response to a written question in the House of Commons from the SNP Leader in Westminster, Angus Robertson.

He had asked for a detailed breakdown of where the 600,000 people affected by the latest loss of personal data came from.

The response showed that 37,546 of the people involved came from Wales. They will all have expressed an interest in, or have joined, the Royal Navy, Royal Marines or the RAF.

With bank details and passport numbers amongst the information lost, Elfyn Llwyd, Plaid Cymru’s leader at Westminster, said he feared for those members of the Welsh public affected by the theft.

“The whole thing has been a fiasco and I’m very worried about those 37,000 people,” he said. “I’m appalled so many people from Wales have been affected. It’s a substantial figure and it’s very disturbing. It’s surprisingly high as well considering the total number that went missing.

“Who knows which hands that information could fall into. In any event there are now personal details that were given in faith and could now be used against innocent victims.

“We will just have to wait and see what happens. All I know is that if there are any financial implications for those affected, I will be working hard to make sure they are adequately compensated.”

Mr Llwyd, the MP for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, added, “These mistakes keep happening and it’s the ordinary people, like the 37,000 in Wales, that pay the price. Every IT project this Government touches seems to go wrong. It doesn’t take a genius to know you shouldn’t leave such a valuable laptop unattended in a car.”

The information lost also includes national insurance numbers, drivers’ licence details, family details and NHS numbers. But the level of information lost depends on how far an individual had got in the application process.

Some of the 600,000 records only consisted of a name. But the MoD also had to write to 3,500 people whose bank details were on the computer.

The laptop was stolen from a car parked in Edgbaston, Birmingham, on January 9. Neither the police nor the MoD would comment on its exact location.