PMQ: Questions around Deleted Data and Border Control

The United Kingdom Parliament met together for the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions Time. Labor Party and Opposition Leader Sir Keir Starmer asked multiple questions to Prime Minister and Conservative Party Leader Boris Johnson regarding a recent computer glitch in the criminal justice database and border control.

Starmer pointed out that the Home Office has announced that 100,000 criminal records have been accidently deleted ten days ago. He asked how many criminal investigations were damaged by this mistake.

Johnson responded by saying that the Home Office is investigating the situation and will rectify it as soon as they can.

Starmer criticized the Prime Minister by saying that he avoided a very simple question.

“It was the most basic of questions,” he said. “It was the first question that any Prime Minister would have asked.”

Starmer followed up with a second question on how many criminals had their records wrongly destroyed.

Johnson responded by saying that they are still investigating the situation to see what has happened, but admitted that they do not know how many cases have been accidently ruined.

Starmer said that there have been 403,000 files that have been deleted. These include 26,000 DNA files and 30,000 fingerprint files.

“Its includes data from criminals convicted of serious offenses; it has impacted live police investigations,” he said.

He further criticized the Prime Minister by asking him how he still does not have answer to the question ten days into the investigation.

Johnson criticized Starmer for failing to listen to him. He said that Starmer did not give accurate data results regarding the data that was deleted.

“Its becoming a feature of the right honorable gentleman’s questions that he fails to listen to the answer that I have just given,” he said.

Starmer swiftly responded by saying that his data was in fact correct. He then asked how long it will take before the data will be reinstated.

Johnson made clear that the members of the Home Office are working around the clock to fix the issue. He does not have an exact time frame of when it will be running again, but he is taking it very seriously.

The discussion of the topic shifted as Starmer pointed out Johnson’s failure to act at closing down the borders of the UK last March. He said that Johnson went against his Home Secretary’s advice to close down the border during that time frame.

Johnson swiftly responded by reminding everyone that Starmer was against shutting down the borders last March. He also said that Starmer’s accusations are not accurate.

“We’ve instituted one of the toughest border regimes in the world,” Johnson said.

Other members of Parliament asked questions to Johnson in the remaining PMQ session.