Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of his Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) treats all breaches of security very seriously and requires all breaches to be reported regardless of whether there is firm evidence of loss or just an inability to account for some devices. All incidents are subjected to an initial security risk assessment with further action on a proportional basis.

It is MoJ policy that all laptops and removable media are encrypted to minimise the impact if a loss were to occur. All mobile phones are deactivated once reported missing to minimise the impact if a loss was to occur.

For the year 2017, the following figures were reported as unaccounted for due to being lost or stolen:

• 43 Laptops
• 42 Mobiles
• 12 Memory sticks
• 0 External hard drives

For the year 2018, the following figures were reported as unaccounted for due to being lost or stolen:

• 75 Laptops
• 76 Mobiles
• 3 Memory sticks
• 0 External hard drives

For the year 2019, the following figures were reported as unaccounted for due to being lost or stolen:

• 117 Laptops
• 151 Mobiles
• 12 Memory sticks
• 0 External hard drives

For the year 2020, the following figures were reported as unaccounted for due to being lost or stolen:

• 99 Laptops
• 198 Mobiles
• 4 Memory sticks
• 0 External hard drives

For the year 2021, the following figures were reported as unaccounted for due to being lost or stolen:

• 126 Laptops
• 202 Mobiles
• 6 Memory sticks
• 0 External hard drives

This information does not include separately reported losses of National Probation/Community Rehabilitation Services mobile phones which have been allocated during COVID to Probation Service Users.

This amounts to 4140 low cost phones, either lost or stolen from those that were issued since March 2020.