The British official at the centre of an investigation into the loss of secret Whitehall security documents has been suspended from his duties, the Cabinet Office announced.
The senior civil servant was questioned in an internal inquiry after sensitive files relating to al-Qaeda and Iraq were left on a commuter train.
He remained at work in Whitehall after the loss was discovered yesterday, but a decision was later taken that he should be suspended from work while inquiries continue.
Police began a hunt for the papers after they were declared missing on Tuesday. They eventually came to light after being passed to the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner, by the member of the public who discovered them inside an orange cardboard envelope left on a train from London Waterloo to Surrey.
The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassing losses of government information, including the disappearance of personal details of millions of child-benefit recipients on computer discs sent through the post.
The individual who left the documents on the train is a senior civil servant working in the Cabinet Office’s intelligence and security unit, which contributes to the work of the Joint Intelligence Committee.
PA