Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many mobile telephones, BlackBerrys and laptops were lost by his Department in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 to date.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) takes its responsibilities for protecting information assets seriously and complies with all the mandatory requirements of the Security Policy Framework. As such, it has in place, security incident management procedures to ensure losses are dealt with appropriately.

The FCO's central records show the following equipment reported as lost or stolen, overseas and in the UK in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 until 30 June:

Blackberry devices are protected with remote wipe when the device is reported lost or stolen. In addition, after five failed attempts to access the password, the auto-wipe will clear the device of any data.

Information on the number of mobile telephones lost or stolen is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost. To enable maximum value for money, mobile phones are controlled by individual Posts where they take advantage of local telephone rates and mobile telephone deals. Hence there is no central management or monitoring of mobile usage.