Nearly 2,000 people have had personal information about themselves lost by the Ministry of Justice over the past year, in a series of incidents listed in the department’s accounts, published last week.

The disclosure comes after the MoJ faced embarrassment last year when its IT supplier EDS lost track of a portable hard disk containing data on around 250 prison staff.

As well as the EDS incident, the report lists three other instances where the loss of data had to be reported to the information commissioner.

One involved the loss of a locked four-drawer cabinet in December, containing the names and addresses of 89 offenders and their criminal records. The cabinet was lost by contractors during a move. The police and individuals were informed.

In March this year, a member of staff lost an unencrypted memory stick containing the names, national insurance numbers and employee numbers of 1,500 MoJ staff. Staff were informed of what had happened. In another incident, the Probation Service placed a court results sheet containing the personal data of four people into the Royal Mail system in error, although the documents were recovered.

Another 157 people were affected by incidents that were not reported to the commissioner. They mainly involved the loss of inadequately protected electronic equipment, devices or paper documents, or the unauthorised disclosure of data.

The MoJ said it did not report those incidents because disclosure would create an unacceptable risk of harm, or because other exemptions in UK information legislation applied.

A spokeswoman said that a dedicated Information Assurance Programme has been established for the coming year to address information risks, and that all staff have undertaken mandatory data security training.