Prime Minister: UK lost data on 3 million citizens

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown had the unfortunate task Monday of disclosing yet another incident of data loss, this time on drivers with the British equivalent of a learner's permit.

Included in the data were names, addresses and other personal identification items. This time, however, no banking or credit card information was included.

Such was not the case with the last incident, where data on 25 million residents were put at risk of identity theft after Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Office lost data concerning child benefits.

According to Transport Minister Ruth Kelly, an Iowan contractor first alerted the government of the data loss in May. However, Minister under the Tony Blair administration, Stephen Ladyman said this was no cover-up, as he "assumed" that his successor would have informed Brown of the problem.

But the Iowa City police were not informed of the loss until Monday, and officials said it will be unlikely the drive is ever found. However, the police department told the BBC that they did not have any reason to believe there was criminal intent behind its disappearance.

Although it may not have been Brown's fault directly, the issue is pushing his government further into a bad light among the country's residents. A Sunday Times poll showed that voters had a 55 to 32 percent preference for the Conservatives over the Labour party, which is the party of both Blair and Brown.

Seeing an opportunity, the Conservatives have wasted no time in keeping the issue in front of voters. "Quite simply the government is failing in its duty to obey its own laws on data protection," shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers told the BBC.

Brown took over for Tony Blair following his resignation in June of this year.