The details of MI6 spies, SAS and special forces personnel were leaked along with the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy
Details of British spies and SAS soldiers were included in the ‘catastrophic’ Afghan data leak, it has been revealed.
Defence sources have said that details of MI6 spies, SAS and special forces personnel were included in the spreadsheet, after they had endorsed Afghans who had applied to be brought to the UK. The document – 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 Ministry of Defence official.
The MoD became aware of the breach more than a year later, when parts of the spreadsheet were anonymously posted in a Facebook group in August 2023.
Other details leaked included the names and contact details of the Arap applicants, and the names of their family members.
The breach – which took place under the previous Conservative government but was kept quiet until this week by a superinjunction – has been described as a “betrayal” of Afghans who served alongside British forces in the country between 2001 and the withdrawal 2021.
A decision was made by the government to bring some of the Aghans impacted by the leak to the UK, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of around £7billion over the next five years. The government also stands to lose more money through compensation costs.
In a statement on Tuesday, after the unprecedented superinjunction was lifted by a High Court judge, Defence Secretary John Healey offered a “sincere apology” on behalf of the British Government for the data breach.
He later told the Commons the spreadsheet contained “names and contact details of applicants and, in some instances, information relating to applicants’ family members, and in a small number of cases the names of members of Parliament, senior military officers and Government officials were noted as supporting the application”.
“This was a serious departmental error,” he added.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge also apologised on behalf of the previous government, which was in power when the leak happened and when it was discovered more than a year later.
Mr Cartlidge later asked Mr Healey about reports that someone other than the original person who leaked the data had been engaged in blackmail.
