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

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


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.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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