UK Border Agency - 1 February '09
Paper files lost in transit containing personal details of refugees.
A brief summary of the data loss is shown below:
UK Border Agency
1 February 2009
Asylum seekers
Names, addresses, dates of birth, passport numbers, driving licence numbers, bank details, details of children
Lost in transit between UK Border Agency offices.
More than 17,000 files containing the personal details of refugees and their families have been lost by the government, plunging the asylum system into chaos.
The figures emerged from the office of Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, n from Dr Brian Iddon, Labour MP for Bolton South East.
In response to a parliamentary question submitted by Bolton South East MP, Dr Brian Iddon, the Immigration Minister confirmed , "The UK Border Agency maintains a rolling programme of locating files and parts of files, that have been identified as lost. On 10 November there were 17,208 principal files recorded as lost."
The paper files have been lost in transit while being moved between different offices and storage facilities.
The Information Commissioner's Office will be investigating the matter and in particular asking why sensitive files were not backed up in any way. "Where organisations rely heavily on paper records it is important that they ensure they have back-up copies," a spokesman from the ICO is reported to have said.