A slight differece of opinion.

First we have this:

Alistair Darling has blamed the loss of two CDs relating to child benefit claimants on a "junior official" who acted alone in breaching procedures. [Gordon] Brown backed his chancellor's version of events during prime minister's questions yesterday.

But Sir John Bourn, the outgoing comptroller and auditor general, told a secret session of the public accounts committee yesterday that a senior business manager at Revenue & Customs had authorised the information to be released in its full form. His email approving the sharing of the data was copied to an assistant director.

The NAO said yesterday that it specifically stated that it did not need all the information being offered by Revenue & Customs.

It asked for all child benefit numbers, national insurance numbers and but did not want bank accounts and addresses and dates of birth. According to Bourn, Revenue & Customs told the NAO that removing the extra information would be too costly.

Now I have had a few digs at Sir John, but as he is on his way out its nice to see that he flips the bird at HM Govt. Just a matter of time now before the New Labour spin machine attempts to discredit Sir John's version of events whilst ministers all run around attempting pass the buck...
Tags:ID Cards
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NI numbers
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