Government accused of 'downplaying' data leak risk to Afghans who aided UK forces

A new report offers a stark contrast to the official review about the deadly effects of the information breach

- Ceri Thomas

Newly published evidence reveals suspicions that the government has downplayed the serious and sometimes deadly impact of the leak of personal data of nearly 19,000 Afghans who worked with the British during the war in Afghanistan.

The leak contained a list with details of people who had worked closely with UK forces and had applied to be resettled in the UK after the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in 2021. The leak happened in February 2022 but was not discovered until August 2023.

The then Conservative government won a super-injunction banning any mention of the leak, on the grounds that individuals named in the dataset and their families "would be at grave risk, including risk of death" if it fell into the hands of the Taliban.

It was not until July that a judge lifted the super-injunction and details of the leak became public. At the same time, the Afghanistan Response Route, an emergency resettlement scheme set up for people in most danger, was closed.

In parliament, the defence secretary, John Healey, confirmed that "a very significant element" in both decisions was a report he had commissioned into how great a risk the leak remained in 2025, three years after it occured - the Rimmer review.