Employees are more at risk from their own companies’ lax approach to data security than they are from the government’s data losses, research out today suggests.

A survey by Opinion Matters for life assistance company CPP reveals concern that employers are failing to tighten up their data protection policies following a string of high-profile security breaches.

The government has come under criticism in the last 12 months for a string of data security failures, from a civil servant leaving a top secret intelligence report on a train to the loss of CDs containing the data for 15 million child benefit claimants.

Today’s survey found a quarter of employers admitted taking their staff’s personal information out of the office, while ten per cent fail to shred personal information about their staff.

Danny Harrison, identity theft expert from CPP, described the problem as “widespread”.

He pointed out the Economist Intelligence Unit’s report that 85 per cent of businesses have had at least one serious incident of data loss in the past year, a 22 per cent increase since 2007.

Morale among employees is low as a result, today’s survey finds. A fifth say they do not trust their bosses to protect their personal information while two-thirds are unhappy with existing security procedures.