MTAS system 'catastrophic'
Updated on 19 December 2007
Channel 4 News brought you first evidence of the Government's waywardness with personal data..the junior doctors online recruitment scandal - today the data protection chief branded the failure catastrophic.
The Medical Training Application Service - MTAS - was meant to simplify things for junior doctors - make it easier to apply for jobs. Instead, it led to what has now been described as a catastrophic breach of security.
Names, addresses, phone numbers, sexual orientation and convictions revealed because the Department of Health failed to ensure the site was properly encrypted - that it was indeed secure.
The first of what has become a year of Whitehall data breaches. the most personal of doctors' details available for all to see. And apparently downloaded with the utmost of ease. Now the Information Commissioner's Office - the people in charge of policing the data security act has told the health department - do it again and you will face conviction.
Junior doctors were already angry about their new training system - taking to the streets of London to protest - and they had warned MTAS was deeply flawed. But nobody foresaw this.
On April 25, Channel 4 News was told of a serious breach. We informed the health department. The next day - another breach and finally the entire system was closed down.
We understand that the computer company responsible for MTAS, Methods Consulting, had made a last minute change to the system leading to the breach. They have not returned our phone calls. But the commissioners office says that it is the department of health's responsibility
Patricia Hewitt may well have apologised several times, she later told Parliament that she had reported Imperial College, London, and Channel 4 News to the police over the breach. At no stage were we asked for any information about this security breach and later the dept later quietly asked the police not to continue with the investigation. The Information Commissioner's Office has told us that our investigation were in the public interest.
The health department has accepted the ICO's undertaking and said today any future national application systems would only be implemented after careful consultation with doctors, proper piloting and rigorous security checks.
