A memory stick containing un-encrypted details about 10,000 prolific offenders and data on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales has been 'lost'.

A private contractor PA Consulting informed the Home Office on Monday that the data might be missing. PA Consulting then confirmed on Tuesday that it had failed to find the lost memory stick, they were  unsure how it came to be missing.

The memory stick contained information from the Police National Computer.
Records of some 30,000 people with six or more convictions in the last year.
Details of serving prisoners included names, addresses, dates of birth and in some cases release dates.

The data at PA Consulting was "held in a secure format on site and downloaded onto a memory stick for processing - which has since been lost".
CCTV recordings have been examined and a search of the premises undertaken in an attempt to recover the missing memory stick.

Investigation

The Home Office said a full investigation was being conducted.
No more data will be transfered to PA Consulting pending the investigation.

'Absolutely Horrified'

Dominic Grieve the Shadow Home Secretary said he was "absolutely horrified" by the loss and "government incompetence".
He went on to say that  the Home Office "has a habit of doing this".
"It is entrusted with a great deal of highly confidential material and it seems to be entirely incapable of keeping it secure. "

"One of the possible consequences is that they [criminals] will bring legal actions against the government and the taxpayer will then have to pay damages to people, who appear to be pretty undeserving, because of the government's incompetence."

No Comment

A spokesman for PA Consulting refused to comment on the data loss.