A data breach that exposed personal information belonging to thousands of Afghans applying to relocate to the UK was a foreseeable failure, a parliamentary inquiry has concluded, according to BBC News.
In a report published on Thursday, the Commons Defence Committee said the Ministry of Defence did not have the required expertise to manage the Afghan relocation scheme after the Taliban took Kabul. It also said secrecy had been used to avoid proper accountability.
The breach became known in August 2023, but reporting was blocked by an unprecedented super-injunction until July 2025. A super-injunction prevents publication of the information it covers and also bars reporting that the order exists.
The committee said the incident was not simply the result of one person’s error, but stemmed from wider failings including unsuitable tools, weak procedures, inadequate training, poor continuity and insufficient data protection oversight.
According to the report, the breach was one of 19 recorded between February 2022 and November 2023. It involved MoD personnel sharing a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with a trusted third party. The BBC previously reported that the breach originated from UK Special Forces headquarters.
The spreadsheet contained information on more than 18,500 applicants to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme, known as Arap. The scheme was created in April 2021 for people considered at risk because of their work with British forces in Afghanistan, and for eligible family members. It closed in July 2025.
Committee chairman Tan Dhesi said the MoD “should stick to defence” and should not have been responsible for immigration casework schemes. The report described the department’s use of Excel as evidence of a continuing cultural failure and criticised the wider relocation process as inadequate.
The committee also criticised the duration of the super-injunction, which the report said had initially been expected to last four months but remained in place for nearly two years. Mr Dhesi said secrecy had too often been used to block accountability in areas not connected to sensitive operations.
The report questioned the government’s policy of not commenting on special forces matters in this context, saying special forces involvement should not stop Parliament and the public from understanding administrative failures.
BBC Panorama reported in February 2024 that British Special Forces had effectively been able to block Arap applications from Afghan counterparts seeking to relocate to the UK. The committee said it could not establish the connection because of the government’s “neither confirm nor deny” position, but raised concerns about the handling of such cases.
The BBC also reported that internal MoD documents showed a British Special Forces officer rejected 1,585 applications from Afghans with credible links to special forces over a period of weeks in 2023, without approving any during that period. The committee said the number of later overturned decisions showed the seriousness of the failure.
The government announced a review in 2024, and 884 former Afghan special forces members who had served alongside UK forces have since had rejections overturned. The report said the UK retained a special responsibility to Afghan special forces whose applications had been wrongly rejected.
The defence secretary is currently facing a legal challenge at the Royal Courts of Justice brought by former Afghan special forces personnel who are unable to reach the UK. At a hearing on Wednesday, the court was told one family had “$200 left to survive”.
An MoD spokesperson said the incident “should never have happened” and acknowledged its impact. The department said thousands of eligible Afghans had already been relocated to the UK, and that reforms had been introduced, including stronger data protection standards, improved casework processes and better programme governance.
