Department of Health laptop losses total £200k

Department admits it only started encrypting devices in 2006

The Department of Health (DoH) has admitted to losing laptops worth around £200,000 over the past decade, along with hundreds of mobile phones and BlackBerrys.

The Department disclosed that it had lost more than 250 laptops, each with a value of around £850 over the course of the past ten years.

A spokesman for the DoH told Computing that all departmental laptops had used data encryption since mid 2006.

While that policy would have helped reduce the risks of data breaches, it still means 140 laptops were lost that could have contained easy-to-access medical data.

"The sheer number of devices and the nature of their work means that if even one is unsecured the consequences for patients could be severe," said Chris McIntosh, chief executive at communications provider ViaSat UK.

In 2008, the DoH topped a survey of departmental laptop losses, losing 14 machines in the 2007/8 financial year.

The department also suffered a series of thefts from its King's Beam House offices in London the following year, when the department lost a total of 34 laptops.

In the past financial year, 2010/11, only 10 DoH laptops were lost.