HMRC reports raise more questions

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As more details emerge about the massive data breach at the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), so do more questions - particularly about the government's response and the causes of the mess.

Today, reports in the media have cast doubts on the accuracy of Alistair Darling's statement to parliament on Tuesday, when the chancellor first alerted parliament - and the nation - to the fiasco.

Darling told MPs that a junior employee had sent to two missing discs via internal mail, contrary to HMRC policy, when they went missing - along with the personal details of 25 million people.

But now, reports have suggested senior officials did approve the method of sending the data, and indeed encouraged it to avoid an additional charge from their services provider.

According to media reports, the conservative chairman of the Public Accounts Committee said he had been given a briefing note from the National Audit Office, which said that office had specifically asked for banking and other personal information to be removed from the data set before it was sent. Leigh said that request was turned down because desensitising such material would have incurred an additional charge from data services provider EDS.

A spokeswoman from EDS stressed that the firm's data services management had nothing to do with the breach.

Reports are also now suggesting that although a so-far unnamed 23-year old did post the discs, the action was approved by a senior manager.

Shadow commons leader Theresa May said that: "[Darling] also told Parliament that the decisions were taken by 'junior' officials. But it has since emerged that they were taken by a 'senior' manager, in the full knowledge of an HMRC director."

May also countered Darling's claim that banks request he wait ten days to release the information - an action that has spurred calls for data breach legislation. "On Tuesday, Alistair Darling told Parliament that he delayed making the data scandal public because the banks needed more time to put safeguards in place. But the banks are quite clear that they didn't ask for any more time," May said.

And, according to a report in the Times, staff at the HMRC this week reported two more missing discs, so even more data could be at risk, the report said, but the Metropolitan police would not confirm the story.

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