He may be 30 points down in polls of the Tory leadership selectorate, but at least Rishi Sunak is ahead of his Tory leadership rival Liz Truss in one regard.
While the Treasury’s new annual report contains no mention of data breaches, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office currently run by Truss seems to have suffered an avalanche of them. Its latest annual report reveals that “117 incidents were reported and investigated”, of which “96 were considered to be personal data breaches”.
The vast majority of these look to have been data protection issues – that’s to say, personal information going out accidentally – but even that should be an issue for Truss as she tries to shed the image of herself as a “chaotic eccentric” on a par with her predecessor.
More serious are the eight “deliberate contraventions” reported, which suggest leaks designed to embarrass the government or to enhance the Foreign Office’s own standing.
Leadership hopeful Truss was appointed foreign secretary in September and its accounts run April 2021-March 2022, meaning she was not in charge for the whole of the reporting period. Though her departments have often garnered a reputation for leaking stories, the report names no names.
