My data has been lost, photocopies (with nonessential information redacted and instructions to destroy) sent to get full details of what was held on me.
I've asked MoD to confirm that they accept responsibility and thus liability in the event of my being prejudiced by their negligence. What is particularly galling is that the letter spins the incident as a "theft" rather than as a catastrophic failure in security at many levels that allowed the theft!
Letter to Information Commissioner and MP will follow...as for ID cards, no way, and even the Census is starting to look dubious (US contractor in line for it....how safe will that data be?!?!)
The only way to stop the cavalier attitude to personal data is to have an automatic entitlement to compensation in the event of loss. Say £500 for each person whose record is lost. Multiply that by 600,000 (or even 25million!) and you have a very large incentive to look after data properly!