4:36pm UK, Tuesday November 20, 2007

Alistair Darling has made a statement to the House of Commons about HM Revenue and Customs.

The Chancellor was speaking after the head of HMRC Paul Gray resigned over the loss of seven and a half million peoples' details.

180 darling hmrc statement

Chancellor Alistair Darling

:: The Chancellor announced that the chairman of Price Waterhouse Coopers Company and the Independent Police Complaints Commission will investigate HMRC's security practices.

:: He insisted that "no unusual activity" has come to light since the information disappeared.

:: Mr Darling said he delayed making his statement so that "appropriate safeguards" could be put in place to protect the public, in particular in relation to bank accounts. "The banks were adamant that they wanted as much time as possible to prepare for this announcement," he said.

:: "I regard this as an extremely serious failure by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Department," the Chancellor said.

:: The records include: "names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit numbers, national insurance numbers, and where relevant, a bank or building-society account details."

:: The missing information contains the details of 25 million people.

:: The police say they have no evidence of the information being used for "fraudulent purposes, or criminal activity."

:: The Chancellor was informed of the missing data on the 10th November when he asked the HMRC and Metropolitan Police to investigate.

:: When the information did not arrive, it was sent again, by registered post but, the Chancellor said: "This should never have happened.

:: The information was sent by post, not registered post.

:: Following a request from the National Audit Office for information from the Child Benefit office in October, two password protected discs were sent to the NAO.