Jo lambasts East Dunbartonshire Council over data loss

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 1st Jun 2009

Jo Swinson MP has criticised East Dunbartonshire Council following revelations that it is the only council in Scotland which keeps no records of lost personal data.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats today published a report on data loss which shows that many councils and health boards across Scotland are failing to keep personal information safe. The investigation found that councils are failing to keep USB sticks, laptops, computers and blackberries secure. This has resulted in secret crime reports and entire servers from schools being stolen, children's pictures going missing, clinical studies being misplaced and videos of patients going astray.

Jo Swinson is disappointed that East Dunbartonshire Council is the only Council in Scotland that keeps no record of what data is lost. Jo has expressed grave concern about this lack of transparency and is urging the council to reconsider its policy in order to reassure constituents that their personal details are in safe hands.

Commenting, Jo Swinson said:

"I was shocked to learn that East Dunbartonshire Council keeps no record of what personal information is lost. These recent findings by the Scottish Liberal Democrats highlight the need for greater security in many councils and health boards across the country, but it is impossible for residents to hold East Dunbartonshire Council properly to account without transparency about what is lost. Without recording what goes wrong, it is not possible to learn from it.

"I urge the council to immediately establish a policy of recording any lost data and ensure that they do everything in their power to improve data security in all their activities.

"These failings have all happened following pledges by the Scottish Government to improve data security. Despite promises of central guidance on data protection procedures it is clear from these findings that more urgent action must be taken if we are to be reassured that confidential information is held to the highest possible standards by the public sector."

Related Link:

Click here to view the dossier of data loss, produced by the Scottish Liberal Democrats