Department for Work and Pensions: Theft
(asked on 6th December 2022) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of his Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.
Please see the table provided for figures on lost or stolen computers and phones.
Information requested for memory sticks and external hard drives is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Lost and stolen | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23* |
Computers (laptops and Surface Pros) | 24 | 40 | 52 | 47 | 140 | 130 |
Mobile Phones | 44 | 75 | 92 | 32 | 67 | 60 |
*up to end of November 2022
All DWP mobile phones and laptops are password protected and encrypted in accordance with Data Protection guidelines.
The figures provided combine lost and stolen items and do not include cases where items have been recovered. The majority of these losses/thefts occurred in home/office break-ins and whilst travelling. To put this in context, DWP is the largest government department employing over 82,000 staff and is a geographically dispersed organisation, with managers having responsibility for colleagues across a number of locations.