Pension benefit statements of hundreds of Scots NHS workers were finally recovered yesterday after a major search found they had arrived at their intended destination.
The alarm was raised on Friday after it emerged that the package containing names and national insurance numbers had not been seen since it was dispatched to Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) on October 26.
It was one of 162 packages sent to 15 addresses throughout Scotland by FedEx, the Scottish Government's official courier. All of the other packages arrived safely.
News of the missing package came a few days after Chancellor Alistair Darling told the House of Commons that two discs containing the personal details of 25 million child benefit recipients had gone missing.
Police are still searching for those discs amid concerns that people whose details are on them could fall victim to identity thieves.
Last night, John Swinney, the Scottish Finance Secretary, said he was pleased that the correct procedures had been followed to allow the pension details to be recovered at the hospital.
He said: "We were always confident that the single missing package out of 162 would be found safely, as the correct procedures were followed at all stages, enabling traceability checks to be successfully conducted.
"Even though the data contained no addresses or bank account details, we were right to take the issue seriously.
"The review under way around data-handling issues in the Scottish Government will proceed, as we are very clear that the government will deal with these important matters competently and effectively."
Unions claimed members had been kept in the dark about the missing package.
Matt McLaughlin, Unison's regional organiser for NHS Glasgow and Clyde, said: "It is totally unacceptable that personal information has gone missing and no-one thought to tell the staff who are affected."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article