Stolen laptops hold info on 11500 children

I received this last week whilst I was away skiing. (Thanks Victor!)
Three laptops containing personal information on 11,500 children were stolen earlier this month from a National Health Services office in the United Kingdom The laptops contained the names, addresses, and dates of birth of child patients between the ages of 8 months and 8 years old!

I think this is of interest to all of us, as it can affect anyone of us if our, or our children's private information happen to be stored on somebody's laptop at any time, and this laptop is at risk of being compromised.

Shouldn't they have had stronger measures in place to prevent this from happening? Doesn't this make it a violation of the DPA if so?