RESOURCES DIRECTORATE
Corporate Support and Information Services - Data Protection
Police Headquarters, Saunders Lane, Hutton, Preston PR4 5SB

Tel: 01772 413327 Fax: 01772 412123 Email: [Lancashire Constabulary request email]

Mr Stephen Gradwick

via WhatDoTheyKnow.com

By Email: [FOI #1812 email] Date 23^rd October 2008

Dear Mr Gradwick

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION APPLICATION REFERENCE NO: 1305/08

Thank you for your request for information received by Lancashire Constabulary on the 18^th August 2008, which can be found below:-

I would like to make a request under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I wish to know how many times protectively marked information held by Lancashire Constabulary has been either lost or otherwise compromised.

If there are any such incidents, I wish to know the date of the incident, the rank of the officer responsible for the security breach and the protective marking of the information concerned.

First of all, please can I apologise for the delay in completing our response. Due to unavoidable staff sickness a backlog of requests have formed and in order to be fair to each applicant, requests and correspondence have been dealt with in the order they have been received.

Your request for information has now been considered and the information you are seeking can be found below:-

Following searches of records based at our Information Security Department, it has come to our attention that one unencrypted laptop has been stolen. It is believed that this laptop contained Officer Reports and Witness Statements that will have been graded as `Restricted'. This laptop was being used at the time by a Police Constable and was lost on the 19^th March 2007. Please note that these searches only relate to lost and/or compromised data since our current Information Security Manager came into position in August 2006. Unfortunately no records on this point were held prior to August 2006.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in Lancashire Constabulary and apologise for the delay in getting this information to you.

Yours sincerely

Paul Walker

Freedom of Information Disclosure Officer

You have the right to request a re-examination of your case under Lancashire Constabulary's review procedure. If you decide to

request such a review and having followed the Constabulary's full process you are still dissatisfied, then you have

the right to direct your comments to the Information Commissioner who will give it consideration.