HMRC has reported just under 1,500 electronic devices lost or stolen over the past five years, according to data from a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request.

The request, made by the Parliament Street think tank, revealed that the largest lost took place during the pandemic, when 431 went missing.

Mobile phones accounted for 881 of missing devices and tablets made up 570 devices, whilst there were 40 missing laptops during the reporting period.

In total, 1,183 devices were recorded as being lost, whilst 308 devices were listed as stolen.

“Managing and maintaining an entire network of endpoint devices across a large organisation such as HMRC is no easy task, and one which has been made all the more difficult by the introduction of remote working, which has seen staffers take laptops home, and bring personal, unprotected devices into the mix,” said Edward Blake, area vice president EMEA, Absolute Software.

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