Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, will be forced to appear before aIt has emerged that Treasury papers relating to plans to tackle funding for global terrorism were found on a train and handed to a newspaper on the same day that the BBC received top-secret documents about the war on terror.
Commons committee to explain the latest security breach over the loss of secret government papers.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, revealed that Mrs Smith had been summoned to explain whether the latest loss had compromised national security.
It follows an investigation launched by the Cabinet Office last week into the loss of a bundle of papers including an assessment of the current threat from al-Qa'eda and the security situation in Iraq.
Geoff Hoon, the Chief Whip, said the latest security blunder would be taken "extremely seriously," while David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, described it as ``completely inexcusable''.
The papers relating to a week-long conference of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) were found on a train bound for London's Waterloo station on Wednesday, and handed to the Independent on Sunday.
Mr Vaz told the BBC: "This latest revelation gives us serious cause for concern.
"We need an explanation from the Home Secretary whether all these breaches of security affect our fight against terrorism.
"Until the inquiry has been concluded and we are told how these extraordinary events occurred, no official no matter how senior, should be allowed to take classified or confidential documents outside their offices for whatever reason.''
Downing Street sought to play down the latest loss, however. A source said: "These were not classified papers, they were of the lowest level of security, had been broadly circulated and were due to be made public within days.
"It is of course unacceptable that they were left on a train, but this is not of the same magnitude as the first incident."
But Baroness Neville-Jones, the shadow security minister, said the Government must "get a grip'' on the issue of data protection.
She added: "This is another incidence of the failure of the Government to safeguard sensitive information and yet another example of a lapse in discipline."
Other breaches include:
Last week - senior official from the Cabinet Office is suspended after an orange file containing top secret security assessments of the threat to the UK from al-Qa'eda and the security situation in Iraq is found on a train entering Waterloo station by a member of the public and handed to the BBC.
April 2008 - laptop stolen from an Army captain from under the table at a McDonald's restaurant near the Ministry of Defence
January 2008 - a laptop containing the details of 600,000 people who had expressed an interesting in joining the Armed Forces is stolen from a car in Birmingham.
December 2007 - details of three million candidates to sit the driving test, including names, addresses and telephone numbers, go missing from a contractor in the US state of Iowa.
November 2007 - two computer discs containing all child benefit records held by HM Revenue and Customs, including the personal details of 25 million people, are lost in the post. They have never been recovered.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
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