CABINET minister James Purnell has apologised after leaving confidential papers from a Manchester MP on a train.

Mr Purnell - who is MP for Stalybridge and Hyde - lost the documents from his 'red box' during a journey from Macclesfield to London Euston.

They included a letter from Gorton MP Gerald Kaufman about one of his constituents, plus correspondence relating to the case.

The documents were returned three days later after being picked up by a fellow passenger. Mr Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, has apologised for the 'mistake'.

The loss was one of three data-loss episodes to hit the government in recent days.

It emerged yesterday that a computer memory stick, carrying the details of user names and passwords for a key government computer system, had been left in a pub car park.

Last week, a civil servant was fined £2,500 for leaving papers on a train. In that case Richard Jackson admitted negligence and was fined for a breach of the Official Secrets Act after he left classified documents relating to al-Qaeda and Iraq on a train.

Gordon Brown said he was 'concerned' by recent incidents with important data.

The prime minister added that Mr Purnell would be "as concerned as me that rules for the future ensure that these things cannot happen."

The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, reported last week that there had been 277 information breaches in the last year. Eighty related to the private sector, 75 to the NHS and other health bodies, 28 involved central government, 26 local councils, and 47 concerned the rest of the public sector.

A spokeswoman for Mr Purnell said: "This was one letter from an MP with the attached correspondence and was returned safely within three days. Obviously, James is very sorry for the mistake."