A report from the Commons defence select committee has found that a catastrophic Ministry of Defence data breach exposing the personal details of thousands of Afghans who had worked with UK forces was a "foreseeable failure" that could have been avoided with basic staff training, and that the government kept it secret for too long. The February 2022 leak, which was hidden behind an unprecedented superinjunction against the national media until its existence was revealed last July, triggered a covert evacuation programme likely costing billions of pounds, and MPs concluded that secrecy, weak accountability and fragmented delivery left affected Afghans without support they needed.

The breach occurred when an MoD staff member sent an Excel file outside government believing it held details of around 150 Afghan applicants, when it actually contained a hidden tab with over 18,500 further records; the committee said basic Excel training would likely have prevented it. By August 2023, when the department discovered the leak, thousands of people already knew a data incident had occurred. As of 9 June 2026, around 7,000 eligible people still need relocating to the UK, including 3,700 believed to remain in Afghanistan, and MPs criticised a new "self-move" policy requiring some approved families to flee the country unaided, warning it creates a "two-tier system" excluding those who cannot afford to relocate themselves.