Former defence secretary makes ‘no apology' for Afghan injunction
Thousands of people are being relocated to the UK as part of a secret £850 million scheme set up in the wake of the breach.
Sir Ben Wallace has said that the decision to apply for the gagging order was 'not as some are childishly trying to claim, a cover up' and that he believed that if the leak had been reported it would have 'put in peril those we needed to help out'.
It came as Defence Secretary John Healey said that the person involved was 'no longer doing the same job'.
A dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) was released 'in error' in February 2022 by a defence official.
The Ministry of Defence only became aware of the breach when excerpts from the dataset were posted anonymously on a Facebook group in August 2023, and a superinjunction was made at the High Court in an attempt to prevent the Taliban finding out about the leak.
Writing in the Telegraph, Sir Ben said that when he was informed of the 'error' he was 'determined that the first priority was to protect all those that might be at risk'.
'I make no apology for applying to the court for an injunction at the time. It was not, as some are childishly trying to claim, a cover up,' he said.
'I took the view that if this leak was reported at the time, the existence of the list would put in peril those we needed to help out.
'Some may disagree but imagine if the Taliban had been alerted to the existence of this list. I would dread to think what would have happened.'
Sir Ben left office shortly after the then-government became aware of the breach, having announced some time earlier that he intended to step down as defence secretary.
The leak led to the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – in April 2024.
The scheme is understood to have cost around £400 million so far, with a projected cost once completed of around £850 million.
A total of around 6,900 people expected to be relocated by the end of the scheme.
It is understood that the unnamed official had emailed the dataset outside of a secure government system while attempting to verify information, believing the dataset to only have around 150 rows.
However, there were more than 33,000 rows of information which were inadvertently sent.
Downing Street declined to say on Tuesday whether the official involved had faced disciplinary action or was still employed by the Government.
Mr Healey later told the News Agents podcast that 'they are no longer doing the same job on the Afghan brief' and that 'this is bigger than the actions of a single individual'.
Pushed on whether anybody had lost their job, Mr Healey said: 'I'm actually not going to get into the personnel matters.'
The injunction was in place for almost two years – covering Labour and Conservative governments.
Mr Healey offered a 'sincere apology' on behalf of the Government in the Commons on Tuesday, and said he had been 'deeply uncomfortable' in being unable to speak about it in Parliament.
Kemi Badenoch also said sorry on behalf of the Conservatives.
Speaking to LBC on Tuesday evening, the Tory leader was asked whether she would apologise on behalf of the Conservatives who were in office at the time of the breach.
She said: 'On behalf of the government and on behalf of the British people yes, because somebody made a terrible mistake and names were put out there… and we are sorry for that.
'That should not happen. And this is one of the tough things about, you know, being a minister, which is why even the Government – the Labour Government, now this didn't happen when they were in power – they are apologising as well.'
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