Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data their Department holds on the (a) number and (b) total cost of replacing (i) laptops, (ii) mobile phones, (iii) memory sticks and (iv) external hard drives that have been (A) lost and (B) stolen in the last year.

The figures for the Department for Business and Trade from 1 April 2023 to 10 November 2023 for phones and laptops are below.

The Department has no record of lost removable devices, including memory sticks or external hard-drives.

All departmental IT is fully security encrypted.

The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the

Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries.

Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated and the

contents deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately.

and remotely locked.

There has been no data loss or compromise as a result of these losses.