Data Protection Culture has to Change - Brake

7.27.11pm GMT Thu 27th Dec 2007

A disc from the Carshalton Fields GP surgery containing basic patient information for all the patients who are registered with them has been mislaid whilst being couriered to another part of the NHS.

Commenting on the loss, Tom Brake MP for Carshalton and Wallington said, "With the volume of personal electronic data flying around increasing on a daily basis, it is time the whole culture towards private data changed. It should be safeguarded at all cost. All organisations, the NHS, the Home Office and the Police need to treat our personal data as if it were gold dust."

Tom has written to the Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust to ask what progress is being made in locating the disc and what changes will be made to their procedures as a result of this loss and whether data discs are routinely encrypted to stop them being read by unauthorised people.

Sutton Police are part of the investigation into the lost disc and believe there is no evidence of criminal intent. The information on the disc contained: name, address, date of birth, NHS number, and GP practice code.