Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

UK Treasury admits to wiping data from over 100 department phones after officials made mistakes entering PIN codes

UK Treasury admits to wiping data from over 100 department phones after officials made mistakes entering PIN codes

Sensitive data from over 100 UK Treasury phones, including text messages related to the Greensill lobbying scandal involving former Prime Minister David Cameron, was deleted after officials apparently entered incorrect pins.
The department’s IT team had to reset some 117 of its roughly 2,100 government-issued mobile phones last year – including the work phone of its Permanent Secretary Tom Scholar, according to the Treasury’s response to a Freedom of Information request from the PA news agency.

The revelations are expected to add to criticism of the government’s transparency mechanisms, which have been attacked in recent weeks after it emerged that senior officials may have used personal email accounts to conduct government business.

Last week, the information commissioner launched an investigation into all private correspondence accounts used by ministers after concerns were raised about Junior Health Minister James Bethell’s use of personal emails for official work. Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock is also alleged to have done the same.

Scholar’s phone records gained prominence after it emerged that between March and June last year Cameron had messaged ministers, including Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, and government officials to lobby for the now-defunct financial company Greensill Capital.

The former PM, who was employed by the company, disclosed that he had sent nine WhatsApp messages to Sunak, and 12 texts to Scholar and other Cabinet and Treasury ministers, to allow Greensill access to the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) government scheme set up to help businesses offset pandemic losses.

Although its proposal was eventually rejected, questions were raised about what had been said between Cameron and officials.

In May, Scholar told a parliamentary committee that he was unable to divulge communications he had with Cameron – under whom he had served as chief of staff at Downing Street prior to taking the Treasury post – because his phone had been wiped during a reset in June 2020.

“It had to be reset because, under government security as applies to mobile phones, if the password is incorrectly entered more than a few times, the phone is locked, and the only way to unlock it is to reset it,” Scholar said at the hearing.

“Resetting it means that the data on it is lost. I knew that when it happened last June, and I am certainly not the only person to whom that has happened,” he added.

Scholar also referred to two exchanges with Cameron: one about a “possible leak of the Greensill approach to the Treasury,” and another where “Cameron told me that they had a specific proposal to put to us.”

In each case, he claimed to have “made sure that anything that needed to be recorded for the official record was recorded, and that was not lost when the phone was reset.”

After a committee member said there was a “public interest” in publishing his replies, Scholar noted that if Cameron had copies of his responses, disclosure of these would be “governed by the Freedom of Information Act,” since these messages were “official government business” as they were “generated by me on an official government device” in the course of his work.

Another parliamentary inquiry into the lobbying scandal had questioned whether Scholar’s previous ties with Cameron were why he and the Treasury had spent so much time discussing what one committee member referred to as a “Ponzi scheme.”

Appearing before a House of Commons public accounts committee in April, Scholar said it was “quite natural” to talk to a “former minister I’ve worked with.” Describing Cameron as “persistent,” Scholar said he had met the ex-PM two or three times since he had stepped down from office, but “never to discuss Government business.”

He also claimed not to have had a “substantive discussion” of Greensill’s proposal with Cameron over the phone and to not have known Cameron worked for the company before receiving a letter from them about the proposal in March 2020.

“In terms of the actual discussions with the company over their application to the CCFF ... I just joined one phone call – I think it was less than half an hour – and that was the entirety of my involvement in it,” Scholar said, adding that he had “no further engagement” with Cameron after April 2020.

The public accounts committee is currently accepting evidence for the inquiry, which is scheduled to hold its next meeting on July 22. Scholar and other Treasury officials are again expected to attend.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
Explosions Rock Doha as Iranian Missiles Target Qatar
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
×