London  - Last autumn's reported loss of hard drives containing personnel files on members of the armed forces took on new dimensions Monday with reports that data containing sordid details of some employee's sex lives and drug use was also lost.

The information, if it falls into the wrong hands, could be used to blackmail some employees, the Royal Air Force warned in a memo that was cited by the BBC on Monday.

The memo, written by an unnamed officer, goes on to say that the data "provides excellent material for foreign intelligence Services and blackmailers," reported the BBC, still quoting the memo.

In October, Britain's Ministry of Defence reported the loss of data affecting about 100,000 serving personnel and their families and 600,000 potential applicants to the military and their sponsors.

At the time, the data reported lost included names, addresses, passport numbers, dates of birth and driving license details.

But, as reported by the BBC and the Guardian newspaper this week, the data was stolen and included details on a series of vices - including data on drug use, criminal inquiries, visits to prostitutes and extramarital affairs - of about 500 employees.

The data had been gathered during security checks on the personnel.

The British government has made no comment on the matter so far.

A ministry spokesman said there is no evidence so far that the stolen data has been put to use for criminal enterprises. Counselling has been made available to all affected employees.

The reported data loss comes on top of the government's loss last year of data on the banking details of millions of people who receive child support payments.(dpa)