2007 the worst ever year for personal data privacy

Liberal Democrat research has revealed that 37 million items of personal data went missing last year. The figures raise further questions about the Government's ability to handle personal data, and call into doubt plans for identity cards.

Shepway Liberal Democrat campaigner Darren Briddock runs a computer company which advises on the secure storage of data. Darren said:

"It's incredible that so much data has gone missing in just one year. It's the equivalent of more than one person in two in the country having their data compromised.

"By far the biggest offenders in losing our data is the Government - from tax and benefit details to the NHS, DVLA - the list goes on and on. The Government has yet to prove it can safely and without error store information - in fact all the evidence is that they simply cannot. And yet they continue to push ahead with an ID Card database which could be the biggest risk of them all.

"The data losses in the last year will look like nothing if people could have their names, fingerprint, photos, passport number and more at risk. Time after time, the Government has proved it's not competent to deal with such a big project. They should quit while they are behind."

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said:

"2007 was the worst ever year for personal privacy. Vast numbers of British people have been the victims of serial incompetence. This shocking record of data loss means we need a total rethink on data protection enforcement and an immediate end to the Identity Cards plan.

"The ID card project is now in freefall, because faith in the Government's ability to handle personal data has hit crisis point.

"There is simply no way that any democratic government can expect an unwilling public to accept having their precious personal data cropped and stored in the world's largest database when they aren't confident that database will be safe.

"Gordon Brown must now have the courage to admit that his Government's obsession with data retention has hit a brick wall, and drop it for good."

The 2007 Data Loss Diary:

22 February - 80 passports are lost in the post every month, it's revealed - 1,000 peoples' data compromised

28 February - A laptop containing details of Worcestershire County council employees was stolen - 16,000

23 March - A CD which contained personal details relating to past and present Torbay Council staff and councillors vanished in the post - 6,500

27 March - Halifax allowed details of mortgage customers to go astray after the briefcase holding the documents was stolen from a member of staff's car - 13,000

16 April - A laptop stolen from the King's Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire contained data on children aged between eight months and eight years, including their names, addresses and dates of birth - 11,000

27 April - MTAS published the details of junior doctors' medical applications online - 1,000

3 May - A laptop computer containing personal and bank details of people at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust was stolen - 5,000

9 May - Standard Life admitted some of its customers may have been affected by a security breach in which individuals' personal financial information was sent to others by mistake. - 300

14 May - Marks & Spencer company laptop theft was stolen - 26,000

20 May - TK Maxx reveals world's largest ever credit card hackers fraud which affected some UK customers. Estimated numbers affected - worldwide total 200m - 5,000,000

7 June - Details of Bank of Scotland mortgage customers were on a disk lost in the post - 62,000

14 June - A computer containing personal details of hundreds of staff at the Eden project was stolen from a car - 500

30 August - Monster job-seeking site hacked and contact details of all users stolen - 3,100,000

18 September - A former employee downloaded confidential information from a Pfizer computer system without the company's knowledge - 34,000

21 September - St Edmundsbury Council staff member had a laptop with staff details stolen - 1,400

3 November - HMRC admitted a courier had lost the records of Standard Life customers. - 15,000

5 November - Personal details and scans of patients' retinas on a stolen laptop taken from St Julian's GP surgery in Newport - 1,000

20 November - Alistair Darling reveals the loss of all data on child benefit claimants - 25,000,000

27 November - Newcastle City Council accidentally compromised the personal data of credit card holders because of a computer server error by a member of staff - 50,000

27 November - Abbott, the £40bn pharmaceutical giant lost current and ex-employee records containing names, bank account details, and National Insurance numbers, in transit to its payroll office in Queenborough, Kent - 64,000

29 November - An employee with online finance firm loans.co.uk sold on sensitive customer files. - 250,000

29 November - A package containing details of pension benefit statements was lost after being sent from the Scottish Public Pensions Agency to NHS Greater Glasgow - 200

2 December - CDs with the names, addresses, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers of thousands of people receiving benefits up and down the country were found at the home of a former contractor to the Department for Work and Pensions - 18,000

5 December - The names, dates of birth and national insurance numbers of people claiming housing and council tax benefits in Kirklees, West Yorkshire were lost en route to the government - 45,000

5 December - Names, addresses and ages of Warwickshire teenagers went missing in the post. The details of pupils taking vocational courses alongside their school work went missing after they were posted to a consultancy firm - 200

7 December - Personal details of drivers were sent to strangers by mistake by the DVLA - 1,200

8 December - Bank account numbers, national insurance numbers, names, addresses and dates of birth were on a laptop stolen from a Citizens Advice Bureau staff member's car in Belfast - 60,000

11 December - Leeds Building Society has mislaid data containing the personal information of its entire workforce - 1,000

12 December - Trade unions on Merseyside also revealed that personal details health authority staff had been sent out to private firms - 1,800

16 December - Reports emerge that a HMRC worker reported in October that his laptop containing data was stolen from a car - 2,000

17 December - Ruth Kelly admits the loss of learner drivers' data when a hard drive was lost in Iowa - 3,000,000

20 December - HMRC lost the details of Countrywide Assured policyholders - 6,500

21 December - Skipton, the financial giant, had a laptop stolen with customer details on - 14,000

26 December - Nine NHS trusts admitted losing confidential patient records - 168,000

27 December - Devon and Cornwall police left a floppy disk with employee details in a computer sent for recycling - 6,000

27 December - Northern Ireland DVLA lost details on two discs being sent to the Swansea DVLA - 7,700

TOTAL DATA LOSS - 36,989,300