Child Benefit Data Disc Search Shifts to Courier TNT
The focus of attempts to determine the location of the pair of lost discs at the centre of this week's Child Benefit data loss scandal has now shifted to depots owned by courier firm TNT. The discs - which contain the details of 25 million claimants - become lost after they were posted from HM Revenue and Customs.
The police are now concentrating on TNT after having finished inquiring HMRC.
A spokesman for the carrier highlighted the impossibility of determining whether the CDs had filtered into their system. "We are all working on that theory, but it cannot be proved one way or the other", he asserted.
Child Benefit Record Discs Intended for National Audit Office
The personal information contained on the two discs includes details of names, addresses and, in many cases, bank details. They should have ended up with the London-based National Audit Office, but, having left HMRC in Tyne and Wear, did not complete their journey.
A spokeswoman from Scotland Yard provided confirmation that TNT offices were now being incorporated into the discs search, but did not disclose the location of them, or how many were involved.
TNT: Disc Poster Chose General Mail
A spokesman from TNT, meanwhile, stated that the person responsible for sending the discs had opted for its general mail service over another one they offer, through which the sender can assess the progress of their mail.
TNT, he added, was being entirely complicit with police requests.
Child Benefit Records Had Been Transferred onto Disc From March
March 2007 was when HMRC officials initially began both downloading Child Benefit information onto discs, and sending these discs to the National Audit Office via internal mail. Such practice only emerged this week as the details of the two lost discs became known.
The UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has stated that he "profoundly regrets" the disappearance of the discs, and highlighted how efforts are underway to ensure the data contained on them cannot be used fraudulently.
However, according to David Cameron, the Conservative Leader, the government has "failed in its duty to protect the public."
On the 23rd November, it came to light that the National Audit Office had provided the accounting firm KPMG with discs that contained information on every person claiming Child Benefit, and that had not been encrypted.
The audit office has stated that these discs had been hand-delivered, and were now back with them.
Source - Security International's Current Affairs Correspondent
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