Data protection is a lost art

It perhaps sums up the fag end of this Government that not only does it lose confidential information on every prisoner in the country, not that that should surprise anyone give their abysmal record on any data in their care, but they even brought in consultants to carry out that simple task on their behalf.

The consultants in question are coining it in with fingers in some pie or other in just about every Government department from tracking cattle and road user charging to a £19 million contract to do work on the fatuous ID Card scheme.

They are only one of a whole walletful of consultants working on that particular piece of nonsense at an eye-watering level of fees though. It is all so silly really. They could have saved all that money, time and effort and the grief they will suffer when none of the computer systems work and the details of the entire population are left on a couple of CDs in a Burger King in some motorway service area or other - it's so simple, and it also cuts out the middle man, just ask everyone to put all their details on Facebook.