Number of electronic devices lost or stolen

This Freedom of Information request asks for the number of electronic devices lost or stolen in the last 5 years

Request for information - Ref no: FOI221060

August 31, 2022

Information request

Thank you for your email of 17 January 2022, requesting information from Ordnance Survey in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000, as set out in the extract below:

“Please provide me with the total number of electronic devices reported lost or stolen within your organisation over the last five calendar years (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017)

Example: 2020

  • 15 Laptops reported stolen, 34 lost
  • 13 Mobile phones reported stolen 130 lost
  • 40 Tablet computers reported stolen, 200 lost

Please also provide an estimated cost per device.”

Our response

I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold information in relation to the total number of devices lost or stolen, as set out in the table below:-

Type of DeviceFY 16-17FY 17-18FY 18-19FY 19-20End of 2021
Laptop1 (ThinkPad)2 (1 Dell, 1 ThinkPad)2 (ThinkPad)1 (ThinkPad)2 (ThinkPad)
Mobile Phone

8 (3 iPhone 5c / 5 iPhone 6)

3 (1 iPhone 5c / 2 iPhone 6)3 (1 iPhone 8 / 2 iPhone)3 (1 Nokia / 2 iPhone 8)4 (1 iPhone SE2020 / 1 iPhone 8 / 2 iPhone 12)
Tablet/Computer41001
Total lost/stolen136547

We are unable to provide a separate figure for i) the number of devices stolen and ii) the number of devices lost. This is because when the devices are reported the items are not categorised in this way but are logged as ‘lost or stolen’.

The list below provides the estimated cost of each type of device lost or stolen:

Type of DeviceEstimated Cost
ThinkPad Laptop£1800
Dell Tablet/Laptop£2000
iPhone 6£242
iPhone 8£333
Nokia Mobile£39
iPhone SE 2020£324
iPhone 12£665
iPhone 5C£469

All information requests

See our previous responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

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