The Home
Affairs Select Committee has asked the Home Secretary to write
to them explaining what happened when a contractor
lost the details of 130,000 prisoners on an unencrypted memory
stick.
The committee may also quiz Jacqui Smith on the issue in
October, when she is scheduled to give evidence on any issues the
MPs wish to raise.
Committee clerk Elizabeth Flood said no formal enquiry is
planned, but chair Keith Vaz has written to the Home Secretary to
ask for details and an explanation of what happened. He has also
asked about what is being done to prevent a similar data breach
happening again.
Jacqui Smith is due to see the committee in October as part of
an annual evidence session with the Home Secretary. MPs can raise
any issue they see as important, including this latest data
breach.
The Home Affairs committee has already published a
report on the increasing amount of data held by government, and
the related security risks.
Elizabeth Flood said, "A new enquiry into this data breach
cannot be ruled out, but the committee not long ago completed an
enquiry into government protection of data, so it has said what it
wanted to say. It depends what comes out as a result of this
letter."