UK revenue & customs loses Private details of 25 million People in post

LONDON – The chairman of the UK's HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Paul Gray, resigned on November 20 after it was announced HMRC had lost the names, addresses, bank sort codes and account numbers of 25 million people.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling – already under fire over his £24 billion Northern Rock rescue – told parliament that the loss occurred on October 18 and that the government had known about the lost disks since November 10.

It emerged that a junior employee sent the entire child benefit database on two CDs to the National Audit Office against all security protocol – the CDs were then lost in the post.

UK police are making inquiries at HMRC, which says it doesn't believe the details have fallen into the hands of identity thieves.

Earlier in the month, HMRC also lost the details of 15,000 Standard Life customers, when the disc they were stored on was lost in transit.