The Ministry of Defence official responsible for a catastrophic data leak that endangered up to 100,000 Afghans remains a government employee, it has emerged. The breach occurred in February 2022 when a serviceman inadvertently shared a spreadsheet containing personal details of Afghan applicants for sanctuary in Britain.
The leak, which included names, email addresses, and phone numbers of over 18,700 applicants to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, was kept secret for nearly two years under an unprecedented superinjunction. The High Court order banned news outlets from reporting the breach to avoid alerting the Taliban.
Defence Secretary John Healey repeatedly refused to confirm whether the official had been dismissed when pressed by journalist Lewis Goodall on the News Agents Podcast. He stated, 'They are no longer doing the same job on the Afghan brief,' but declined to answer further questions, saying he would not 'conduct a witch hunt.'
The Information Commissioner's Office announced on Tuesday that no further regulatory action would be taken. However, senior MPs have criticised the superinjunction, with former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith expressing concern about the precedent it sets for covering up government errors.
The breach prompted the creation of a secret relocation scheme, the Afghanistan Response Route, which has evacuated over 16,000 Afghans to the UK, with 8,000 more expected. Healey suggested that parliamentary committees should launch an in-depth inquiry into the incident.
