If confession is good for the soul, then the UK government must be feeling awfully good right about now.
The London Telegraph is now reporting that the Department for Work and Pensions "has suspended all 'data exchanges' with local authorities because discs containing details of council tax and housing benefit claimants have been mislaid."
"At least 45,000 names and personal details are known to have gone missing from one council, with the DWP admitting last night that more authorities have lost discs."
According to the Telegraph, the DWP said that discs from only a "tiny number" of councils had been lost, and that the DWP "thinks" that the discs are "somewhere in the system."
The council discs were lost in September but the fact of their being lost - I beg your pardon, "mislaid" - is only coming to light now. I seriously doubt that if the HM Revenue and Customs ID scandal had not happened, the DWP security blunders would never have come to light.
