.png?width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "MoD data breach that put up to 100,000 Afghans at risk as superinjunction lifted – UK Times")
A data breach by the Ministry of Defence put up to 100,000 lives at risk and sparked the largest covert peacetime evacuation in British history – then was kept secret for almost two years by an unprecedented superinjunction gagging the British press, it can be revealed today.
The leak, in February 2022, exposed the details of thousands of Afghans who said they were in danger from the Taliban because of their links to UK forces and now wanted to escape to Britain.
With fears the information could fall into the Taliban’s hands, more than 16,000 Afghans were brought to the UK under an operation estimated by the government to cost billions, with thousands still to come. It was kept secret from MPs and the public as ministers even decided to hide the true reason for the evacuation from parliament.
Read more about the government’s extraordinary breach and how it was kept secret here:
The extraordinary case can only now be revealed after a court battle lasting almost two years in which national media – including The Independent – fought for the lifting of the superinjunction, a court order so strict that even mentioning its existence is forbidden.
Lifting the superinjunction on Tuesday, High Court Judge Mr Justice Chamberlain called for further investigation after an official review into the data leak “fundamentally undermined the evidential basis” on which the superinjunction had been based.
As the catastrophic breach is finally made public, it can be revealed:
- The government was prepared to evacuate more than 42,000 people affected by the data leak at an estimated cost of £7bn
- At least 17 people on the dataset are believed to have been killed by the Taliban, 14 of these after the leak occurred
- The official review of the leak, commissioned in January 2025, warned the government may have made the dataset more appealing to the Taliban by creating the special evacuation scheme and slapping the media with a superinjunction
- The MoD is facing a compensation claim from more than 650 Afghans who believe they are affected by the breach, which could cost hundreds of millions of pounds
The highly confidential database contained information from applications to the MoD’s resettlement scheme, called Arap, set up in the wake of the disastrous withdrawal from Kabul to relocate Afghans who had worked with British forces.
Some 18,714 applicants, as well as their family members, were named in the database which was shared by a member of the armed forces trying to verify cases. Defence secretary John Healey said the soldier believed the list contained just 150 names but that the leak “should never have happened”.
The majority of these applicants had already been found ineligible for relocation to the UK, and most were still in Afghanistan. A new injunction prevents more sensitive information about the database being reported.
The list also included names of some British government officials.
After the breach was discovered by the MoD in August 2023, the High Court put in place a superinjunction, a court order meaning that the breach could not be reported. It was granted “contra mundum”, meaning it applies to everyone – believed to be the first ever order of its kind, according to the judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain.
In total, 23,900 Afghans linked to the breach have been offered relocation to the UK, with more than 16,000 already in the UK. The MoD says 6,900 of those are people who would not have otherwise been brought to Britain.
In order to explain the need for a new resettlement scheme without alerting the Taliban to the leak, defence secretary John Healey told MPs in a written statement that the changes would “deliver greater efficiency”. Officials said the plan would “provide cover” for the thousands arriving in the UK and explain to councils why Afghan families needed to be housed in their areas.
In January 2025, the former deputy head of Defence Intelligence Paul Rimmer was commissioned to review the government’s approach, leading to a report that would blow holes in their legal case. It would conclude that as the Taliban already had access to “significant volumes of data” to identify targets and the leaked dataset would be a “piece of the puzzle” rather than a “smoking gun”.
The report would lead the defence secretary to recommend the lifting of the injunction and the judge to question the defence intelligence assessments that underpinned the MoD’s case until now.
On Tuesday, Mr Justice Chamberlain, who had heard this case for over 18 months, read out his summary judgement, dismissing the superinjunction.
He noted that the grant of a superinjunction had given rise to serious free speech concerns.
