Government "loses" sensitive data on Vauxhall families

9.00.00am GMT Wed 21st Nov 2007

If ID cards are introduced, future Government data leaks could be even worse

Today families all over the country will be wondering who has got access to their most private information; their income, their bank accounts, their addresses, even the names and ages of their children.

In losing the records of half the UK population - including at least 20,000 Vauxhall families - the Revenue service and the Government have shown a level of incompetence that is beyond belief. The Guardian calls this "the most fundamental breach of faith between the state and citizen".

This data disaster shows that your Government cannot be trusted to handle our personal information. It is time to abandon the wasteful and misguided ID card and National Identity Register scheme. The estimated costs for the scheme are now at £5.6bn and rising; and for what? A single national database will put us more at risk, not make us more secure.

Another Labour politician went on the record against ID cards. In opposition, Tony Blair said "Instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory Right demand, let that money provide thousands of extra police officers on the beat in our local communities."

Blair changed his mind and tried to introduce the ID card scheme. It's not too late for his successors to change their minds too, otherwise future Government data leaks could be even more serious.