Darling, I lost the data! UK Customs Chief resigns
Confidential records for 25 million Britons who receive child benefit payments are lost, Chancellor Alistair Darling told a stunned British parliament yesterday. Darling told the Parliament that two data discs containing records for 7.25 million families, including names, addresses, dates of birth and bank account details are lost.
"I regard this as an extremely serious failure by HMRC in their responsibility to the public," he said, about Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs department which was responsible for the loss.
This is not the first time that HMRC has lost data. Earlier this month they lost data in a CD sent to the National Insurance. Last month they lost a laptop containing vital data. In April 2007, BBC found on the street a VAT return of a man in Norwich, which showed how much he paid for the November 2005 to May 2006 period and his name and address.
An embarrassed Chief of HMRC, Paul Gray put in his papers. In a letter to his staff, Gray said, "I am announcing today that I will be standing down as HMRC Chairman as a result of a substantial operational failure in the Department. This is not the way I would have planned to organize my departure from HMRC."