Shapps defends superinjunction on reporting Afghan data leak

The former defence secretary Grant Shapps has defended the use of an unprecedented superinjunction to suppress news of a data breach that led to the UK government relocating 15,000 Afghans.

- Jamie Grierson

The Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was created in haste after it emerged that the personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.

It has also emerged that details of members of the SAS and MI6 were among more than 100 Britons named in the database.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Shapps, who was defence secretary from 31 August 2023 to 5 July 2024 and was in post while the superinjunction was imposed on the incident, said his focus after the leak was on "sorting out the mess and saving lives".

The superinjunction lapsed on Tuesday, when a high court judge concluded that the threat to the 18,700 Afghans was no longer very significant.