Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, 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 following table includes the number of lost/stolen devices in the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) from 1 January 2023 to 31 October 2023.

Lost and Stolen devices are not replaced on an individual basis, all assets are managed as part of a pooled resource model and replenished as part of their end to end lifecycle.

All departmental IT has device encryption enabled, at rest and is fully security encrypted, to prevent unauthorised access.

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 resulting from these losses.