New figures revealed through Parliamentary Questions tabled by Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson and Richmond Park MP, Sarah Olney, have shown that over 2,000 Government devices were lost or stolen over the last 12 months. 

The statistics, which cover laptops, phones, hard drives and external memory sticks, alarmingly show that the Department of Defence saw 383 devices lost or stolen, the most of any Ministry. 

The Department of Justice also saw a striking number of devices lost or stolen, including 225 laptops and 51 mobile phones. 

In total, 1,021 phones, 892 laptops and 119 external hard drives or memory sticks were lost across all Government Departments over the last 12 months. 

The Government spent at least £944,092 in replacing the lost devices, although some Departments refused to give a figure due to the 'disproportionate cost' of doing so. 

The Liberal Democrats have called for an urgent inquiry into the amount of devices lost in recent years, to ascertain if any potential data risk has been caused. 

Sarah Olney MP said: "These devices could contain sensitive information about UK citizens or related to national security – information that could worryingly fall into the wrong hands.

"Ministers should launch an official inquiry into why this keeps happening and what risks this poses to us all.

"The Government has a responsibility to keep our data and country safe. It feels like they are failing at both."