Parliament's intelligence watchdog, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), is stepping up to investigate a major data breach that has put thousands of Afghans and British military officials at risk. The breach involved the unintentional leaking of a spreadsheet containing over 30,000 resettlement applications by an employee at UK Special Forces headquarters in London. This critical information was sent out improperly in February 2022, but it wasn't until August 2023 that the leak came to light when it was publicly mentioned in a Facebook post.
Chairman Lord Beamish emphasized that all relevant intelligence documents should be reviewed immediately. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has welcomed the ISC's inquiry, asserting the need for urgent accountability for how the leak occurred, especially given its severe implications for those involved. A super-injunction was issued to protect the identities of roughly 19,000 Afghans who assisted UK forces against possible Taliban reprisals, leading to a secretive operation to relocate some of these individuals to the UK at an estimated cost of £850 million.
As this situation unfolds, the ISC aims to uncover serious constitutional issues regarding the management of the data breach and ensure efficient oversight of the intelligence community's actions moving forward.
