Why can't civil servants keep a grip on their BlackBerrys?

All Ministry of Justice laptops and BlackBerrys are encrypted and protected with a complex password

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Disproportionate Cost

This nifty little loophole was put into the FOIA acts in both the UK and the USA not so much to prevent people from making impossible requests, but to give management an opportunity to not answer a question. This clause also gives the agencies/ministries a really good reason to keep data in disparate silos where they comply with data retention regulations but because the data is difficult to compile/analyze they can answer uncomfortable questions with "it costs too much".

Hang on a sec...

Isn't a Blackberry a mobile phone (well, a smartphone of a sort) as well? Were the mobile phones they lost perhaps WinMob, or Nokias, or even Androids? Here's a hint: They're all mobile phones.

Another reason why our elected representatives need a course in joined up writing, and maybe a refresher on the crayon course as well, if they cannot recognise a bleedin' Mobile Phone?!

I'm the one slowly banging his head on the classroom desk...

Lets see Ministry of Justice

Who have lots of staff who work in courts where they are busy prosecuting lots of 'tea leaves' and other such miscreants! Perhaps simply not leaving the bag around or letting them give you a nice a hug might stop some of the thefts.

Of course

All these figures mean jack all unless we know how many devices there are total at each department AND what the loss rate is amongst the general population.

But you know things like that get in the way of a hatchet job against the civil service....

Loss elimination is simple - make employees buy smarphones

Ownership implies pride. If the government, and companies, paid an allowance to employees calculated on a useful life of three years, any employee losing the product is responsible for it's replacement.

A similar principle was used for salesmen. Instead of their employer leasing cars, with lease complications if an employee left, the company paid their lease payments wth the lease in the employees name.. The bottom line was there were fewer staff turnovers.

Apart from outright robbery, I find it difficult to understand how people are always losing cell phones. I have used two way radios and cells for decades and have never lost one. Mind you, I don't use those flimsy belt-mounted quick release holders, I use theft proof 'holsters' of my own design based upon a handgun holster. Miscreants have attempted snatch theft, but they withstood the attack.

I wonder how many Lemon 4's will get 'lost' now it has been replaced with an upgrade that actually works? Perhaps insurers will let us know.