If this person is to be court martialled, then so should all the others' who have been involved in similar cases. But they won't, for this junior Royal Navy officer is expendable. One law for them, one law for us = New Labour's Democracy. It stinks!

Denis Walton, KEIGHLEY, West Yorkshire

And you still think that the government's ID card system will be any different? How much more of this do we have to tolerate before we tell them not only NO, HELL NO!

Adrian Ryan, Donegal, Ireland

Role on ID card eh?

Steve, Hereford, Herefordshire

Nothing like this happens 'by accident' everything happens by design, someone, somewhere is builing a data base on us all, you have been warned!

Clive Burghard , LANCING, ENGLAND

It's a disgrace.He/she should be sacked on the spot.How dare they leave such an item in the car.The police are always exhorting us not to leave things on show.(or actually valuables anywhere) I don't even leave my empty Tesco "Bag for Life" on the back seat!

HD, WsM,

Surprise, Surprise! and there is also the Work and Pensions data left on a roundabout. We all know who is responsible for that Department! But of course he was very busy forgetting his political donations.

M. Cawdery, Portadown, UK

Key issues:
What idiot left a laptop in a car overnight - should be fired just for that, even if no sensitive data was on it.

What security was in place on the laptop to protect data? It should have several systems that munch the data and/or track the laptop if it connects to the internet etc. Knowing HM Government however the Windows password was on a post-it stuck to the screen!

Tony, London,

This government is a bad joke.

They have paid millions and millions to IT consultants, analysts and suppliers and yet they do not seem to have the slightest inkling about basic security.

Court martial the junior officer - and his boss and his boss until you get to the source of this gross incompetence and arrogance - that'll be Brown(e) - Both of 'em.

General election - NOW!

R Bingham, Lauzun, France

Whatever happened to the Data Protection Act? Surely there should be some prosecutions under this? After all this act applies (last time I heard) to everybody in charge of Personal Data on a computer. this includes heads of Departments.
Let's have heads of departments and ministers in court over these breaches.
Oh sorry, forgot that we are talking about Nulabour, who are never responsible because of incapacity and inbred stupidity.

Howard, Basildon, England

Whether this laptop was 'signed out' for removal from a military base is irrelevant. To suggest this is important indicates to me an attempt to prepare the ground to blame an individual scapegoat. By definition, laptops are intended to be carried around.

The real point here is that such data should never have been loaded onto an unencrypted laptop. MOD insist on their contractors handling sensitive data in this way. The same standards must apply in house.

Mark, Bath, England

Surely Government Departments and the Armed Forces have rules about leaving laptops and other valuable equipment unattended in cars? These are the sort of people who, in the future, would be entrusted with ID card data. Enough said.

Neil, Gloucestershire, England

Is there no one that can protect the citizens of this country from this useless, incompetent government?

Oxford Dom, Oxford,

Something is seriously broken in Government I.T.

I work for a bank and we have a secure VPN, encrypted hard disks on laptops - the whole works.

We also have a culture of security- we care about our customers and don;t carry their details around with us. It is unthinkable that anyone could download that much data onto an unsecure device of any kind.

John, Brighton,

"A junior Royal Navy officer " and why did his senior officers allow him to have this info? sorry, i forgot, those at the top aren't accountable, are they?

Phil Barnes, preston, england

I'm a database administrator by profession and find it hard to believe any government or private establishment would save or store sensitive information on a personal laptop.
Could someone please ask the relevant questions as to why such data was left on a laptop in the first place and not at a secure data centre as one would expect.
There has been so much talk of missing data from other offices but would question the intellect for any professional to have this much information on someones laptop in an unencrypted state.
I am begining to wonder if there is any truth in these stories or are a mere propaganga smear on the government.

Islam, Surrey, UK

Have these people never heard of a VPN (Virtual Private Network)? Which would enable them to work from their laptops but the data would never have to leave the mainframe.
When the laptop was stolen they'd have nothing but a cheapo notebook and no access to the data! If every security sensistive company in the world uses one, why can't the MOD?

Jennifer de Sanchez, Alessandria, Italy

> Leaving a laptop containing such sensitive material
>inside a car is likely to be viewed as a serious
>offence, leading to a court martial.

There isn't any chance we could make HMRC part of the military is there?

mike2R, London,

How many cases of gross incompetence does it take before voters get the idea? Because it only takes one person to put those details online and we are all screwed.

Udo, Melbourne, Australia

It becomes more and more clear that not only our government, but those employed by the state have little regard for other peoples information. The lack of security employed when sending, transfering or using personal data on a portable device is unbelievable, the files are not even encrypted! It is obvious that the government would rather spend time on the 'global stage' performing, preening their egotistical images, rather than addressing matters in the UK and getting their own house in-order first. The government have reversed the roll between criminal and law-abiding citizens with its human rights legislation, education is now a social experiment aimed at killing any aspirations, adding to this they have totally lost control of our borders, putting even more pressure on our current weak infrastructure. If any person is in doubt that our current government is unfit to govern our country, then perhaps they should seek psychiatric medical advice.

Les, Southport, England (a country, not a state!)