A BLUNDER that led to the loss of personal details of 30,000 families in the Plymouth area was “entirely avoidable”, an inquiry has found.

A report into the Child Benefit data loss fiasco highlighted “serious institutional deficiencies” at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

A separate inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), into the massive security breach, found procedures for handling sensitive data at HMRC were “woefully inadequate”, with “a complete lack of any meaningful systems” and a “muddle-through” ethos.

The foul-up effectively meant the personal details – including names, addresses and bank details – of every family with a child under 16 went missing, and have still not been found, despite searches by police and HMRC staff.

Latest figures show nearly 35,000 families receive Child Benefit in the Plymouth area, all of whose details have disappeared, including those of 59,920 children.

They were among the 25 million people nationwide whose details were contained on computer discs lost in internal post.

Responding to the highly critical reports, Chancellor Alistair Darling told MPs action was already being taken to improve data security.

He “apologised unreservedly” to everyone affected by the loss and said the public were entitled to expect government departments would protect their details.

But the Tories have branded the reports as “truly devastating”. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said they highlighted “incompetence and systemic failure at the heart of this government”.

The reports were among four published on government data security, including the findings of an inquiry which heavily criticised the Ministry of Defence over the theft of a laptop computer with the records of 600,000 recruits.

Defence Secretary Des Browne was told at the time of the “incomprehension and fury” felt in Plymouth after it was revealed the laptop was stolen from the car of a Royal Navy recruiter while parked overnight in Birmingham in January.

The scathing report by Information Advisory Council chairman Sir Edmund Burton found basic security disciplines had been forgotten.

It said there was “little awareness” of the current threat to information and a “serious security event” of this nature had been “inevitable”.

Investigators found it was one of four such laptops – out of a total of just 55 – to have been stolen since 2004. All were taken from parked cars.

A broader report of Whitehall data handling procedures was also published by the Cabinet Office.

It was announced all civil servants dealing with personal information will be forced to undergo annual training, as part of a package of measures designed to prevent a repeat of the data loss scandals.

The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, said he would be taking formal enforcement action against HMRC and MoD – meaning they could face criminal prosecutions if they do not follow the recommendations set out in the reports.

Lessons had to be learned from recent data losses and information security “taken a great deal more seriously by those in charge of organizations”, added Mr Thomas.