MP Nigel Evans has slammed the Government over the scandal of the missing CDs which contained personal information on millions of people.

The discs hold sensitive data on 25million people - including names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit numbers, national insurance numbers and bank or building society details.

They went missing in transit from child benefit HQ in Newcastle to the National Audit Office in London.

Chancellor Alistair Darling admitted to MPs that a junior official had breached all procedures by sending the discs via couriers.

Ribble Valley MP Mr Evans, the chairman of the all party Parliamentary group on identity fraud, said: "This is the most serious breach of sensitive information that I have ever known.

"We are talking about the sort of information that ID fraudsters would pay top money for.

"How can the Chancellor tell us the information is not in the wrong hands when all we know is the information is not in the right hands? What we know about professional ID fraudsters is that they sometimes sit on information for months or years so the public needs to be vigilant with their bank statements and activities on their accounts.

"I am calling on the Chancellor to contact every-body who is affected by this breach, telling them what precautions they should be taking in order to protect their own identities and secure their bank accounts.

"The public should also be aware of phishing exercises, where fraudsters may try to extract information that banks would never ask for."