Department for Work and Pensions: Theft
(asked on 8th December 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of her 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.
Lost and stolen | 16/17 | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 |
Computers (laptops and Surface Pros) | 0.66% | 0.17% | 0.17% | 0.17% | 0.06% | 0.07% |
Mobile Phones | 0.37% | 0.30% | 0.56% | 0.57% | 0.17% | 0.22% |
The information for memory sticks and external hard drives is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
All DWP mobile phones and laptops are password protected and encrypted in accordance with Data Protection guidelines.
The figures provided combine lost and stolen items and do not include cases where items have been recovered. The majority of these losses/thefts occurred in home/office break-ins and whilst travelling. To put this in context, DWP is the largest government department employing over 82,000 staff and is a geographically dispersed organisation.