HMRC: Junior official committed 'colossal error'

Wednesday, 21, Nov 2007 12:00

The unidentified junior HMRC official, who is allegedly responsible for exposing the entire child benefit database to identity fraud, committed a "colossal error", the department has acknowledged.

The HMRC staff member in question is believed to have copied the database with the intention of sending it to the National Audit Office (NAO); a destination it never reached.

Police are currently trawling through the HMRC office in Tyne and Wear in an effort to locate the missing discs.

They hold sensitive information of 25 million individuals who receive child benefits from the government.

Discussing the mistake, a spokesman for the HMRC said the junior official was acting "completely outside their job remit".

A spokesperson continued: "This individual should not have been involved. It was none of their business. They should have forwarded it on to someone else - another group of civil servants at a more senior level.

"The HMRC office is a huge office with 200 people and there is a nominated team that send items between us and other departments.

"They shouldn't have been involved in the sending of the documents."

The civil servant in question has not been identified and the HMRC is refusing to confirm whether they have retained their position at this point.

Conservative leader David Cameron today pressured the prime minister to answer why such a low-ranking staff member had been allowed to access this information.

He suggested that the department was suffering from job cuts and wider systemic problems.