MoD loses 11,000 ID cards

The Ministry of Defence has lost 11,000 military ID cards in the last two years, the government has admitted to parliament.

Although this seems like a paltry loss compared to the 25m records lost by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, it is still rather a lot, particularly when you consider the armed forces amount to less than 200,000 souls in all. The admission came in a written answer to MPs.

The Tories said the losses were more evidence that the government's plans for a national ID card were fatally flawed and would not improve security.

A LibDem defence spokesman echoed the sentiment, suggesting the loss showed the inherent weakness of the proposals on ID cards, and that the scheme would do nothing to counter the threat of terrorism.

An MoD spokesman told The Register that the figures included lost cards and those that had worn out.

The spokesman said the MoD had no plans to change the cards but that it was looking at data protection more generally in line with the government's review of its own policies. The cards include photographs, name and rank. ®