Glyn Wintle, 17 December 2008
Data protection is a top priority for Government Departments and there are a number of key areas in which we have made improvements:Source: Tom Watson MP (Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office; West Bromwich East, Labour)Vital openness and transparency achieved through the publishing of data breaches in annual resource accounts-there is currently no equivalent requirement to report in the private sector
Enhanced departmental roles increasing accountability with senior information risk owners at board level owning risk and reporting to accounting officers on data security measures
Huge training efforts-90,000 staff trained at HMRC alone, NHS training package available to 1 million plus staff, new civil service wide e-learning package delivering data security training on an unprecedented scale
Increased technical precautions to minimise the likelihood of data losses-encryption programmes in all Government Departments with over 30,000 laptops encrypted in MOD alone.
Updated and improved guidance being issued on all aspects of departmental security including physical, personnel and information security.
