Loss of United Kingdom child benefit data (2007)

[2] The discs were sent by junior staff at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) based at Waterview Park in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to the National Audit Office (NAO), as unrecorded internal mail via TNT on 18 October.

In a list of frequently asked questions,[6] on the BBC News website a breakdown of the loss was reported as being: Whilst government ministers claimed that a junior official was to blame, the Conservatives said that the fault lay in part with senior management.

[7] Emails released on 22 November confirmed that senior HMRC officials had been made aware of the decision on cost grounds not to strip out sensitive information.

However the only details said to be lost were the: name, address, phone number, the fee paid, the test centre, payment code and e-mail, so not much of a panic was caused due to a reduced risk of financial fraud.

[13] Darling stated that there was no indication that the details had fallen into criminal hands, but he urged those affected to monitor their bank accounts.

The loss led to much criticism by the Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

Osborne said: Let us be clear about the scale of this catastrophic mistake— the names, the addresses and the dates of birth of every child in the country are sitting on two computer discs that are apparently lost in the post, and the bank account details and National Insurance numbers of ten million parents, guardians and carers have gone missing.

Nick Assinder, a political correspondent at the BBC, expressed the opinion that he believed Darling to be "on borrowed time".

[19] On 7 January 2008, Jeremy Clarkson found himself the subject of direct debit fraud after publishing his bank account and sort code details in his column in The Sun to make the point that public concern over the scandal was unnecessary.

In his next Sunday Times column, Clarkson wrote, “I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake.″ [20] Under the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee, the payment could be reversed.