Everyone should have a microchip implanted into the brain, so that the data cannot be lost, watch out.

Arthur Guy, Gloucester, England

Why is this nasty, draconian government so intent on bringing in ID cards? What are they afraid of? Do they have something to hide?

David, Newcastle,

What's this about Purnell? Don't remember reading that anywhere last week? Isn't that the more interesting story?

David Smith , London,

And still the man demands we all have ID cards!!!!!!!
This man is no fit to be an MP let alone PM.

pete, powys, wales

It was all the fault of a private company??? and who hired this company?? Not the public Not the mayor of london NO it was the Labour Lying Govenrment who couldn't tell the truth if their very lives depended upon it.

Colin, Newcastle , untided kingdom

He admits his Government is incompetent but still wants to hold extremely personal and sesntitive data on every single person in the country in addition to wanting to be able to record EVERY SINGLE internet transmission?

THIS IS MADNESS!

Kazuki, Tokyo, Japan

This is the man who would give us ID cards. What a joke. I wonder what he will dream up next, the man is a walking talking disater, who can believe a word he utters. Data cannot be safe, of course it can.

bee, york,

What seems to have been overlooked is that if the data remains where it belongs, on the file servers, or on paper, it's NOT so easy to wander off home with hundreds of thousands of records in a pocket!
Poor security practice is poor security practice, however you spin it.

Chris, St Leonards-on-sea, UK

Identity cards ? NHS computerised health records ?
I don't think so GORDO.
I'm glad that even you have now admitted the immense problems - perhaps that will quiet the clamour from your ambitious empire building ministers.

David Nammory, Liverpool,

It isn't data "entrusted by the public" because we don't have a choice about what data is recorded. Our only choice is who to vote for.

Neil, Norwich, UK

If they can't keep our data safe as they now admit the case for ID cards - weak at the best of times - is completely obliterated. How long until the Government admits this and scraps the scheme?

CB-W, London,

It's also a cop-out to blame a private company. You can outsource WORK but you can't outsource RESPONSIBILITY.

I wonder if Gordon Brown or anyone else in this incompetent Government appreciates the difference!

John Goode, Welwyn Garden City, UK

Can we assume James Purnell will be joining the civil servant (in the news last week) in the dock?

Andy, Chester,

We can't trust this Government with sensitive information, what the hell have we done entrusting the country to them??

Dave Farmer, Broxbourne, England

But he still wants every scrap of info on every last one of us???
The fat man is out of his mind..

rick, newcastle, uK

does it not seem odd that all these breeches of security just happen to get handed in to a well known newspoaper or rhe bbc,if yopu ask me there is something of the mischievious about all this

John Allison, dover,

We in the UK are already spied on by CCTV cameras (even in some toilets), our emails and phone calls are to be monitored, we are to be placed on a DNA database. All for the alleged reason of keeping our identities safe. Then they go and lose data.

MaxC, London,

The data on the stick was, in fact, encrypted according to on report.

Which is not to say that all encryption methods are unbreakable.

G Davies, Somerset,

Julian Harper of Cardiff has summed it up.

I'm self-employed and carry sensitive data on a USB memory stick, I don't care if the stick's lost; I use a freely available encryption program. Google "on fly encryption free".

If I can do it, why the hell can't the complacent govt and its contractors?

Mike Perris, Brighton, England

A government that can't keep secrets is a liability.

Bill Bird, Wallasey, Great Britain

So that's the final nail in the coffin of the ID card scheme and the country-wide NHS IT project. There is hardly any other data that is so private. Entrust its safekeeping to these incompetents? Someone's having a laugh!

Hugh O'Neill, Chichester, U.K.

By blaming Atos, GB hopes to exonerate his government. Yet this lucrative contract is one of the many his government have awarded under the PFI . Further, their 11yr obsession with our personal data and their sanction of its mishandling warn loudly of a creeping and uncontrollable surveillance state

Nick, Athens,

I have worked for the government on quite a few projects. The ones that I have worked on have been secure. I was not allowed to use data sticks and all information was stored securely on servers. Other companies take on projects within the infrastructure for millions but security is not high priorit

sasa, Alicante, Spain

" ... Gordon Brown says government cannot ensure data safety ... "
So why should I, or ANY of the 62 million here right now, entrust the Government with ANY of our data?

What a useless Government ... led by an incompetent PM ...

David Michael, London, UK

Tell us something we do not already know! Just how stupid does this governement think we are. But let them carry on storing data and losing it putting us all at risk!

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

This is a Government whose only response to any calamity for which it is responsible is " ... ooops! sorry! it will not happen again! ...".
But I say ... sorry! ... it has happened again!
Have no fear Gordon ... the problem will disappear at the next General Election.

David Michael, London, UK

Just a Mistake! What a laugh Perhaps the government should entrust our data with another country not just another company after all the data is going to arrive somewhere we do not want it to, probably sooner rather than later at the present rate of loss

David , Milton Keynes, Great Britain

ID cards? are you serious? I'm choking on my cereal.

larry, lewis, uk

Remember - this is the government that will shortly be forcing national ID cards and biometric passports on us all, and sharing the data amongst all sorts of public bodies, all under the false guise of "security". Oh, how convenient 9/11, 7/7 and the War on Terror have been for US and UK gov's....

Alex Kerr, London, UK

Just a mistake ? Just like the credit crunch ?

Perhaps the government should entrust out data with another company.

john, london,

I was a Security Officer in a Govt Dept. People at the top do not take this seriously. There are rules on how data must be classified and how it can be used and kept safely. These rules are not being adhered to. It is not human error. It is ignorance and contempt by the people concerned.

Julian Harper, CARDIFF, UK

The use of encryption would do the job. Storing all these data in plain format is just ridiculous.

steven, berkshhire,

It's a little bit a of a poor life if you cant even entrust the goverment with personal details of it puplic. I have to say that the computer systems security cant be that good. because they shouldn't even be allowed to install a data stick without permission.

stuart burnop, nelson, lancashire

While the BoE interest rate is supposed to fight inflation, by far its greatest effect is on mortgage rates and therefore house prices, which are not included in inflation calculculations. Effectively its like controlling a car's speed by watching its temperature guage

stephen crisp, Stockton-on-Tees, England