The focus on data security grows ever stronger as MPs have hit out at the government over the loss of the personal information of more than three million learner drivers.

A hard disc containing this information was lost by a third-party contractor in the US back in May, admitted transport secretary Ruth Kelly.

Conservative transport spokesperson Theresa Villiers claimed the government is "failing in their duty to obey their own laws on data protection", while Lib-Dem Susan Kramer described the breach as "mind-bending".

This follows the major data breach at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which saw the bank account information of 25 million people claiming child benefit being lost in the post.

That may have been the tip of the iceberg however, as an HMRC spokesperson today admitted that the personal details of 6,500 pensioners on a data cartridge were lost at the tax department's Cardiff office.

In addition, insurance firm Norwich Union has recently been fined £1.26 million by the Financial Services Authority for failing to keep customer data secure – highlighting the need for companies to take extreme care to ensure sensitive data back-up records do not go astray.