GOVERNMENT TO COMPLY WITH NEW DATA SECURITY RULES

Strict Guidlines on handling sensitive data

All Government departments will have to encrypt important information held on computers and other media, with staff undergoing annual mandatory training to ensure they comply with the new rules.

The changes have been brought in after a review was commissioned following the loss of two computer discs containing sensitive personal data by junior officials at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The review, commissioned by Gordon Brown in November last year, sets out the wide range of actions that have already been put in place to improve data security and outlines what will be done to strengthen policies further.

Action already taken to improve security includes the Cabinet Office issuing new, stricter guidelines on the handling of sensitive personal data, 90,000 employees at HMRC being given additional security training and the encryption of 20,000 laptops at the Ministry Of Defence.

Improvements that will be introduced will include stronger accountability. This includes defining and enhancing data security roles within departments to ensure clear lines of responsibility.

Personal data held on notebook PCs, USB memory keys, computer discs and other media will have to be encrypted; compulsory testing of the systems used will be carried out by independent experts to test how secure these are.

SENSETIVE INFORMATION LEFT ON TRAIN

Terror Secrets Blunder

A passenger on a London train found sensetive files about Al-Queda, the files contained a document on Al-Queda called Constraints and Capabilities, which was marked for UK/US/Canadian and Australian eyes only.

The paper was commissioned by the Foreign Office and Home Office. Counter-terrorism detectives were trying to find out who else could have seen the papers or if they had been copied.

Officers will also want to know why such sensitive information was removed from the Cabinet Office and who authorised it.

Neither of the papers are believed to list the names of British Intelligence Informants or sources of information.

It follows the embarrassing loss of two discs containing the tax details of 25million people last year, which led to the resignation of Head of HM Revenue and Customs, Paul Gray.

ID CARDS COULD THREATEN PRIVACY

ID Cards

A group of MP's have warned the government to limit the amount of data collected from citizens for the ID Card Scheme, to avoid becoming a surveillance society.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has called for proper safeguards on the function of ID Cards to stop "function creep" threatening privacy.

The Ministry of Justice has said it had to balance protecting the public and a right to privacy. It wants a guarantee the scheme will not be expanded without MPs' approval.

The National Identity Scheme is due to roll out later this year, and will eventually hold details of everyone in Britain over the age of 16.

The committee accepts the governments assurance that the scheme will not be used as a surveillance tool and that they should only collect data that is essential, to be stored only as long as is necessary.