Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) unauthorised entries to military bases broken down by form of entry recorded, (b) thefts or losses of classified material, (c) successful cyber attacks on his Department's systems and (d) other security breaches took place in 2016; and what steps his Department took in response to each such breach.

There were 73 physical incidents on Defence sites recorded in the Ministry of Defence's (MOD) central database for 2016 with an incident type of "physical access". The centrally held information is not recorded under sub-categories.

There were 1,640 information assurance security incidents reported for thefts or losses of classified material in 2016. Lost/stolen ID cards account for 1,280 of this total. The remaining 360 incidents cover lost/stolen documents, user access devices, hard disk drives, laptops/tablets, phones, CDs and USB devices.

I am withholding the information on successful cyber attacks as its disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

There were 2,923 security breaches reported in 2016.

The MOD treats all breaches of security very seriously and requires all breaches to be reported regardless of whether there is firm evidence of breach or otherwise (for example if there is just an inability to account for a particular personal electronic device or an individual document for a period of time). All incidents are subjected to an initial security risk assessment, with further action taken on a proportionate basis.