Civil servants lose almost 50 BlackBerrys

A total of 44 Scottish Government BlackBerrys – many of which were loaded with the contact details of senior ministers and officials – have been lost, stolen or left in pubs, restaurants and on trains in the past 21 months.

New figures showed that, as well as the 44 BlackBerrys which were lost, civil servants also mislaid five laptops, five ordinary mobile phones, one full desk-top computer and a USB device.

A total of 20 security-cleared ID passes were also lost between January 2010 and October 2011, as well as a camera, a mobile charger and a printer.

The cost to the taxpayer of the stolen equipment is understood to be tens of thousands of pounds but the potential price in lost information – including the phone numbers of senior ministers and possibly even personal information on members of the public – is likely to be more damaging.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government stressed that all its smartphones and laptops were fitted with security devices designed to prevent them being hacked.

But he was not able to say whether civil servants or ministers had been forced to change their phone numbers or whether anybody outside the Scottish Government had managed to access the sensitive information contained in the equipment.

He said: “The Scottish Government treats the loss or theft of items from its buildings very seriously and has robust security standards in place. This includes encryption for removable IT devices to prevent unauthorised access to data.”

Civil servants at the Enterprise and Environment Department appear to be most careless, according to the figures, losing 16 BlackBerrys, three laptops, four mobile phones and one desktop computer since January 2010 – far more than any other department.

But of more concern to ministers will be the loss of the five BlackBerrys from members of the Ministerial Private Office team, which are likely to have had the most sensitive contact details on them.

Civil servants in the Ministerial Private Office also lost a camera and three important ID tokens in 2010-11.

Jackson Carlaw, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said: “For the Scottish Government to routinely mislay expensive equipment stuffed with important and sometimes confidential information and to do so in such a cavalier fashion year on year, really is cause for concern.” For Labour, Siobhan McMahon MSP, said: “We cannot afford this kind of slipshod attitude as belts are being tightened across the board.

“I am sure we can all think of better ways to spend the tens of thousands of pounds of public money that has been wasted.”

And Ms McMahon added: “More worrying still are the security implications.

“If ministers’ phone numbers, addresses and other personal details were on these BlackBerrys then there is a real risk these details could fall into the wrong hands.”