Tuesday, November 20, 2007

HMRC Lose Data

Congratulations to HMRC who have succeeded in losing data relating to the child benefit records of 15 million people.

That's quite an achievement, even by HMRC standards of incompetence.

Chancellor Alistair Darling, who is having less than a pleasant week (what with the Northern Rock debacle etc), is making a statement to MPs.

The confidential details were contained on a computer disc, and is understood to have been lost in transit.

HMRC's chairman, Paul Gray, has resigned.

Seemingly the Treasury and government have known of this for the past ten days. One might ask why it is only now that they have chosen to share this knowledge with the rest of us.

The answer is simple, the news leaked.

Revenue and Customs claims that it does not think that the records (names, addresses, date of birth and bank accounts) have fallen into the wrong hands.

This statement is of course complete nonsense, given that they don't know where the records are. Quite why they assume that the public are so naive and gullible as to believe their reassurances is beyond me, and adds insult to injury.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed they are "making inquiries" into the discs.

This is the same government that would have you believe that data stored on their beloved id cards would be safe in their hands!

2 comments:

  1. If they were a private company they would be hauled before the courts.

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  2. Anonymous5:51 PM

    I've been trying since February to get back the tax these people owe me.

    When I rang a couple of weeks ago they said they were dealing with a backlog of enquiries and had currently reached August, so I had to give them more time.

    The problem is that every time I ring, they give me another trivial task to perform. That puts me back on the queue and gives them another three months breathing space.

    If I were responsible for an organisation in such a state of melt down as HMRC, I'd be looking around for any opportunity to 'resign with dignity' and pass the mess on to someone else.

    When I owe them tax, I'm charged interest on a daily basis (including the time the cheque spends in the post). When they owe me money, they've no incentive to do anything about it.

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