Calls for inquiry after 2,000 Government devices lost or stolen in last year

More than 2,000 Government devices, including laptops and mobile phones, have been lost or stolen over the last 12 months, new figures show.

Ministers are facing calls to launch an inquiry into the missing and stolen technology, which also includes hard drives and external memory sticks.

The statistics, revealed through written parliamentary questions to different Government departments, show the Ministry of Defence was responsible for misplacing the largest number of devices.

A total of 383 devices were either lost or stolen from the department, with the Ministry of Justice recording the second largest number of misplaced devices, with 225 laptops and 51 mobile phones lost or stolen.

Justice minister Mike Freer said his department treats all losses and thefts “seriously and have processes in place to ensure that when a device is reported as lost or stolen, action is taken immediately to disable the device”.

Two Government departments set up in February this year have already experienced multiple losses and thefts of devices.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has lost 26 mobile phones since it was created, while the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has lost 76 phones and 14 laptops.

In total, 1,024 phones, 889 laptops and 119 external hard drives or memory sticks were lost across all Government departments over the last 12 months.

The Government spent at least £944,092 replacing the lost devices, although some departments refused to give a figure due to the ‘disproportionate cost’ of doing so.

And others like the Department for Transport gave estimated price ranges of the items which had been lost or stolen.

The Liberal Democrats, who submitted the questions to the Government, have called for an urgent inquiry into the amount of devices lost, to find out if any data risk has been caused.

The party’s Treasury spokesperson, Sarah Olney, said: “These devices could contain sensitive information about UK citizens or related to national security – information that could worryingly fall into the wrong hands.

“Ministers should launch an official inquiry into why this keeps happening and what risks this poses to us all.

“The Government has a responsibility to keep our data and country safe. It feels like they are failing at both.”

A similar series of questions from the Lib Dems in 2021 revealed that 4,800 laptops, mobile phones and other devices had been stolen or lost between that year and the 2017 general election.

A Government spokesperson said: “We take the security of Government devices extremely seriously, which is why items such as laptops and mobile phones are always encrypted so any loss does not compromise security.

“As is the case in all organisations, a very small proportion of such devices can be reported lost or stolen every year. We take these matters seriously, with all instances investigated.”