Lags set to sue as prisoner details go missing

TAXPAYERS face a huge compensation bill after the personal details of thousands of criminals were lost in the latest Government data blunder.

The names, addresses and expected release dates of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales were among the information on a computer memory stick lost by contractor PA Consulting.

Now the public could be landed with the enormous cost of protecting paedophiles, rapists, drug runners and killers from vigilantes or rival gangs.

Tory spokesman David Ruffley also warned of the huge costs for taxpayers if criminals sue the Home Office for breaching their privacy and the Data Protection Act.

And Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "Charlie Chaplin could do a better job of running the Home Office than this Labour Government." In what is being called the worst crisis of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's trouble-prone career, there are fears criminals could buy the information to settle old scores - possibly even waiting outside prison gates to get revenge.

But changing release dates would cause mayhem in crowded prisons.

The new embarrassment is the latest in a string of cases where the Government has lost highly-sensitive data, including details of 25million child benefit claimants.

But Jacqui Smith last night said the company which lost the details had broken rules for handling sensitive data.

"This was data that was being held in a secure form, but was downloaded by an external contractor, " she told the BBC.

PA Consulting was carrying out research for the Home Office on tracking offenders.