http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7996980.stm

He (Mr Brown) also calls for anyone caught “disseminating inappropriate material” to automatically lose their jobs. 13/4/09 so, does this mean that all those grossly careless officials who ‘lost’ their laptops will also (quite properly) lose their jobs?

That certainly would logically fall under the heading of “disseminating inappropriate material”

See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8181/MI5-agent-loses-secret-papers-train.html

Where: “A secret agent has sparked a security alert by losing his briefcase on a train, … The loss follows a series of similar blunders which have seen a laptop computer stolen from another MI5 operative, an MI6 spy lose his computer in a tapas bar and a senior Army official’s laptop stolen at Heathrow.
And:
• Elizabeth Stewart and agencies
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 March 2008 17.12 GMT
• Article history
More than 1,000 laptops have been lost or stolen from government departments in recent years, new figures have revealed.
Details of departmental losses were disclosed to MPs in a series of written ministerial answers to the House of Commons which reveal that at least 1,052 laptops have gone missing, including 200 in the last year alone.
The Ministry of Defence is one of the worst offenders, having had 503 laptops and 23 PCs lost or stolen since 1998, including 68 in 2007.
Scores of laptops have also gone missing from the Department of Health (151 since 2001-02); the Ministry of Justice and its previous incarnations (136 since 2001); and HM Revenue and Customs, which had 45 stolen in the last year alone.
The figures also do not include several departments, such as the Home Office, Foreign Office, Department for Transport or Department for Business, meaning that the losses could be much higher.
The Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for business, Sarah Teather, said…”The Labour government has a disgraceful history of recklessness with citizens’ data,”
Extract GOOGLE search “loss of government papers lap tops”
• Stolen MoD laptop contains 600000 records – Public Sector …
21 Jan 2008 … Yet another government data breach… A Ministry of Defence (MoD) laptop … Last week also saw other government blunders come to light, such as the loss of more than 4000 patient …. Desktops, Laptops & OS white papers …
http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39169749,00.htm – 75k – Cached – Similar pages
• GAO: Most sensitive data on government laptops still unencrypted
Via @Computerworld – GAO: Most sensitive data on government laptops still unencrypted …. Download this white paper. Data Loss Risks During Downsizing …
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110983 – 103k – Cached – Similar pages
• Government admits to 200 more stolen laptops – ZDNet.co.uk
20 Feb 2008 … The government has admitted almost 200 laptops have been stolen from various … of Defence data loss last month that resulted from a stolen laptop. …. IT White Papers; Security; Software Tools; Reviews & Prices …
news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39327014,00.htm – 106k – Cached – Similar pages
• Incident: UK Ministry of Justice – Loss of laptop from secured …
UK Ministry of Justice Data Loss: Loss of laptop from secured Government premises.
datalossdb.org/incidents/1102-loss-of-laptop-from-secured-government-premises – 63k – Cached – Similar pages
• data loss and laptop computer Resources | TechRepublic
White papers, case studies, technical articles, and blog posts relating to data loss and laptop … Tags: Federal government, Notebooks, laptop computer, …
search.techrepublic.com.com/search/data+loss+and+laptop+computer.html – 61k – Cached – Similar pages
• Data loss prompts Whitehall laptop ban – politics.co.uk