In the shops, the sales have started early, but did you know that Government departments are being equally generous with desktop and laptop computers?

Why, it’s as though they’re giving them away!

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that nearly 3,000 computers have been lost or stolen from Government departments since 2002.

From the Daily Mail:

“In total 1,774 laptop computers and 1,035 desktop computers have been lost or stolen, a rate of nearly five a week and three a week respectively.

This year alone 238 laptops and 40 desktops have gone missing. The past seven years have also seen 676 mobile phones, 202 hard drives and 195 memory sticks lost or stolen.

The worst offender is the Ministry of Defence, which handles some of the most sensitive information in Government. It has had 866 laptops stolen and has lost 178 - more than half the total of missing laptops.”

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman Paul Holmes whose Parliamentary questions uncovered the figures said,

“Everyone understands that things go astray but it is truly staggering that over the past seven years a laptop has been lost every working day across government.

It demonstrates a culture of carelessness across Whitehall that ministers have done nothing to curtail.

There must be serious concerns about what kind of sensitive data is on the thousands of computers that have gone missing.

This is yet more evidence that the Government cannot be trusted with our personal information.

There is no reason to think they will be any less slapdash with the intrusive ID cards database or the Big Brother phone call log.”

Liberal Democrat research has revealed that the Home Office exaggerated the extent of police injuries at last summer’s Kingsnorth Climate Camp.

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker had originally described the £5.9 million police operation as appropriate and proportionate.

Now, in response to a Parliamentary Question by Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice spokesperson David Howarth, Coaker has admitted that, “there were no recorded injuries sustained as a result of direct contact with the protesters.”

From the Telegraph:

“Kent police were criticised for being “heavy handed” and for using aggressive tactics during the Camp for Climate Action protests in August.

Ministers at the time justified the operation, pointing out that 70 officers had been injured in the course of their duties.

But not one of those injuries was sustained in clashes with demonstrators, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The papers, acquired by the Liberal Democrats, show that the 1,500 officers policing the Kingsnorth climate camp near the Medway estuary in Kent suffered only 12 reportable injuries during the protest in August.

The Home Office has now admitted that the protesters had not been responsible for any injuries.

Only four of the 12 reportable injuries involved any contact with the protesters at all.

Instead the injuries reported included “stung on finger by possible wasp”; “officer injured sitting in car”; and “officer succumbed to sun and heat”.

One officer cut his arm on a fence when climbing over it, another cut his finger while mending a car, and one “used leg to open door and next day had pain in lower back”.

Three other officers succumbed to heat exhaustion, three had toothache, six were bitten by insects, and others had diarrhoea, had cut their finger or had headaches.”

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Spokesperson, David Howarth said:

“It beggars belief that Vernon Coaker could defend as proportionate a £5.9m policing operation in which protestors didn’t cause a single injury to police officers.

“The threat posed by environmental direct action is being systematically overblown by both the Government and the police.

“I hope that ministers and the police will now stop trying to portray peaceful protestors as somehow equivalent to terrorists or violent extremists.

“Members of Parliament have been rightly exercised by political policing rearing its ugly head with the arrest of Damien Green. They should be just as concerned when the same tactics appear to be directed at peaceful protestors.

“In light of this new evidence, it has to be asked whether climate campers were so heavily policed because they posed any genuine threat of violence, or because they posed a challenge to government policy?”

A confidential Home Office document has been leaked to a campaigner against ID cards - the subject of which is… how to prevent leaks.

Phil Booth of the NO2ID campaign received the document, which appeared to outline measures to stop employees of the five companies bidding for work on the ID cards scheme from leaking information about the project.  It even seemed to suggest that police would not need a search warrant to enter the homes of employees.

The Times has the story:

“Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, has suffered fresh embarrassment from a new Whitehall leak disclosing that ministers are seeking new powers to search the homes of staff working on ID cards.

An 11-page confidential Home Office document – which was sent to a campaigner against ID cards – suggests that the employees’ homes could be entered without the need for a police warrant.

The latest disclosure comes amid the continuing political furore over the police raid on the House of Commons office of Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesman accused of receiving leaked Home Office documents.

The measures outlined in the document appear to be designed to prevent the employees of five companies, all bidding for work on the ID cards scheme, from leaking damaging information about work on the national identity register.

This register is expected to contain the names, addresses and private information about tens of millions of Britons if it comes into operation as Labour plans in four years’ time.”

Fingerprints taken? Check. ID cards issued? Check. Scanners to actually read the cards… oops!

The Home Office have admitted that official bodies will not be able to read the first ID cards to be issued in Britain. Despite saying they would provide electronic readers, the government hasn’t – and has no plans to do so either!

ID cards were issued last week to foreign nationals including students and those granted a visa because they are married to a British Citizen – but the cards will be no more use than existing passports and visas.

(From the Observer)