Downing Street Says » Computer Theft

Asked whether the Prime Minister had spoken to Hazel Blears about the theft of her personal computer, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Prime Minister had been informed about this as people would expect and DCLG had issued a statement.

Asked whether the Prime Minister would b e conducting a review into how Government data was passed to Ministers when they were at their constituency, the PMS replied that as he had said that morning, the Prime Minister did say at Cabinet that Secretary’s of State should ask their Permanent Secretaries to remind staff in departments of the importance of enforcing procedures on the treatment of sensitive information.

Asked if there was any suggestion that there had been a breach of procedures in this case, the PMS said that DCLG were looking at the exact circumstances of this particular case as a matter of urgency. Put that the Prime Minister presumably knew about this when he said those words to Cabinet, the PMS said that he had.
Put that the Prime Minister must have been concerned about such instances since he took the opportunity to remind the Cabinet of the importance of the procedures in place, the PMS said that of course it was important that the rules and procedures the Government had were enforced.

Asked if anything could happen to Hazel Blears in the light of this, the PMS said that he did not want to speculate on the exact circumstances surrounding the case until we had more information about exactly what happened.

Put that under the terms of the Official Secrets Act it was a criminal offence to have not taken due care of Government information properly, the PMS said he did not know if that was the case. DCLG were looking as a matter of urgency at the exact circumstances surrounding this episode. Asked if it was clear that it was lost rather than the item being stolen, the PMS said that it was clear that there had been a theft. As the DCLG statement made clear, there was a break-in at the constituency office of Hazel Blears on Saturday afternoon. Hazel Blears was not there at the time. The thief broke in through the window, triggering the building’s security alarm. The building’s security staff arrived within minutes and the matter was now the subject of a police investigation.

Put that it was against the rules to have Government information on a personal computer, the PMS said he did not want to speculate on the case until we had established exactly what the facts were.

Asked what the procedures were for the treatment of sensitive information, the PMS replied that the procedures were those circulated by the Cabinet Office and he was sure they could give people a detailed answer as to what they were. Asked when the Prime Minister was informed and was it Hazel Blears who told him, the PMS said he did not want to get into the specifics of internal Government conversations.

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» Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Computer Theft

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