Number of devices and equipment lost and retrieved by government staff: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many devices (laptops, phones, hard drives, USBs, cameras, SD cards, tablets, ect.) have been lost by employees?

2. How many devices were reported lost?

3. Where were these devices reported to have been lost?

4. How many of these lost devices were retrieved?

5. How long did it take for these lost devices to be reported lost?

6. How many devices (laptops, phones, hard drives, USBs, cameras, SD cards, tablets etc.) were reported stolen?

7. Where were these devices reported to have been stolen?

8. How many of these stolen devices were retrieved?

9. How long did it take for these devices to be reported stolen?

10. How many staff members have been disciplined for having lost/misplaced devices?

11. How many devices have been issued to employees?

Response

1. This figure is not recorded in its entirety as information regarding mobile phones, SD cards, MiFi’s etc. is held by local business areas who are responsible for the purchasing and allocation of these items.

2. In total there have been 98 devices reported as lost in the requested time:
 

Incident sub-type	Lost	2019	2020	2021	2022
Blackberry / smartphone	Lost	39	17	18	4
Camera	Lost	0	0	0	0
Docking station	Lost	0	0	0	0
Electronic Storage Device	Lost	2	0	0	1
Laptop	Lost	11	3	2	0
SD card	Lost	0	0	0	0
Mifi device	Lost	0	1	0	0
Laptop charger	Lost	0	0	0	0
Electronic backup device	Lost	0	0	0	0

3. Locations of loss were reported as: Office 6, home 21, unknown locations 71.

4. There have been no reported retrievals in the requested time frame.

5. Generally between 1 to 3 days depending on the time of the loss (weekend etc. and reported the next working day).

6. In total there have been 27 reported devices stolen in the requested time frame (January 2019 to February 2022).

Incident sub-type	Stolen	2019	2020	2021	2022
Blackberry / smartphone	Stolen	3	4	0	2
Camera	Stolen	1	0	0	0
Docking station	Stolen	1	0	0	0
Electronic Storage Device	Stolen	0	0	0	0
Laptop	Stolen	6	4	4	2
SD card	Stolen	0	0	0	0
Mifi device	Stolen	0	0	0	0
Laptop charger	Stolen	0	0	0	0
Electronic back-up device	Stolen	0	0	0	0

7. Locations were reported as: Office 6, home 12, unknown 7.

8. There have been no retrievals in the requested time frame.

9. Generally between 1 to 3 days depending on the time of the loss (weekend etc. and reported the next working day).

10. All formal disciplinary cases are managed by the HR People Advice and Wellbeing team. No staff have been formally disciplined for having lost/misplaced devices in the timeframe January 2019 to present.

11. 7895 devices (laptops, tablets) have been issued centrally to Scottish Government (SG) staff since Jan 2019. 5177 mobile phones and tablets have been ordered since January 2019 on our central contracts. As they are ordered individually by business areas through this contract, SG do not hold central records of them being issued. USBs, cameras and SD cards are treated as peripherals and as such are ordered directly by individual business areas. We do not hold a central record of these devices being purchased or issued.

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