Intelligence committee demands to know why ministers kept them in the dark over Afghan data breach
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has a statutory duty to oversee and scrutinise intelligence matters but were not informed of the data breach, which affected up to 100,000 Afghans and cost the UK taxpayer an estimated £7bn, for three years.
The breach happened when an unnamed official, who was not sacked, sent an email with a datasheet of what they thought were 150 names to help get them evacuated as the Taliban swept to power. But instead the data contained details of thousands of Afghans who were then left exposed.
In a terse letter to ministers, the chairman of the committee, Lord Beamish, has warned that there were 'no grounds' to withhold the information from them.
The committee notoriously operates in secret and does not reveal the sensitive issues it has discussed, as a means of ensuring that the intelligence and security services are held to account.
Ministers have also been ordered to release sensitive papers on the Afghan data breach which put the lives of up to 100,000 Afghans at risk and cost the government £7bn while a secret route for asylum was created.
In a statement issued after the ISC met on Thursday morning, the Labour peer Lord Beamish said: 'The committee has today written to require, under the statutory powers the committee has in the Justice and Security Act 2013, that Defence Intelligence (DI) and Joint Intelligence Organisation assessments be provided to it immediately, together with any other intelligence assessments as referred to by Mr Justice Chamberlain in his judgement of 15 July, the closed version of the Review by Paul Rimmer, and all other DI material relating to the ARAP scheme.'
He added: 'The committee has also asked to be provided with the basis on which government counsel advised the Court of Appeal that material relating to the data loss could not be shared with this committee, given that under the Justice and Security Act 2013 classification or sensitivity of material is not grounds on which information can be withheld from the ISC.'
Former Tory defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace has taken full responsibility for the breach and the decision to initially get an injunction to prevent publication of the details.
His successor Sir Grant Shapps, armed forces minister James Heappey and former prime minister Rishi Sunak who oversaw the cover up have yet to make a public statement.
Labour defence secretary John Healey decided to lift the superinjunction preventing publication and even discussion about the data breach on Tuesday, having previously ordered a review by Paul Rimmer.
Senior ministers have told The Independent about their 'total shock' when they were presented with the facts of the breach and the super injunction on their first day in office last year.
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