Right after the ministerial statement on Kieron Poynter's interim report on the HMRC data Chernobyl, it got out that there was another major data leak, this time from the DVLC (via Pearson Driving Assessments in Iowa!) on learner drivers.
Are the government doing anything about it? Of course not - they're offering another token superficial apology and are hoping it will all die down soon, given the world of short attention spans that we inhabit. The "latest" scandalous data mismanagement, btw, happened in May this year but someone at Whitehall obviously thinks it's an opportune time to release the information. Publicise some of the big data losses now and hopefully it will all disappear from the media radar in a few weeks, especially with Christmas coming up and the new Italian England manager to think about. The government are so blindly focussed on data debacles as a news management problem that they can't even conceive of actually seriously doing anything about the issue.
I had some small hope when Blair left and Brown came in that the complete obsession with news management at the expense of substantive government would be at least slightly abated. But it seems that for the Brown Nu Labour government it is all ahead as before.
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