When a UK government department lost computer discs carrying the personal data of 25m people – members of 7m families in receipt of child benefit – last year, the incident was blamed on mistakes by junior officials. But a report just published on the debacle focuses its criticism not so much on individuals as on the “unsuitable organisational design” of HMRC, the dep­artment form­ed by the merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise three years before.

In the report of the investigation headed by Kieran Poynter, chairman of City of London professional services firm PwC, Mr Poynter expresses dismay at HMRC’s “muddled accountabilities”. In a swipe at the complex structure adopted for the 2005 merger, he says HMRC should have opted for a traditional, hierarchical structure: “[HMRC] is not suited to the so-called ‘constructive friction’ matrix type organisation [that was] in place at the time of the data loss.”