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Department for Transport Data Storage and Use

As my right hon. Friend said, the Department for Transport and its agencies handle huge amounts of data—hundreds of millions of transactions every year. Do not these particular breaches stand out because they are so unusual and because everybody involved—civil servant and private contractor—has acted with commendable openness and frankness? In a world in which human beings are involved and mistakes are bound to happen, is it not true that the only thing that really protects us is when people are open and frank about those mistakes? The people involved should actually be congratulated on coming forward, because if Pearson had chosen not to tell anyone about this, we would not know about it even today.