LIVE: Government says sorry after 'catastrophic' cover-up over Afghan relocation scheme

We are ending our rolling coverage of the MoD data breach. Thanks for following along.

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Nobody has been fired over £7 billion Afghan data breach, LBC understands

MoD blunder leads to £7billion government cover-up of Taliban 'kill-list'

The person responsible for the MoD data breach should lose their job, Penny Mordaunt tells LBC

Luke Pollard tells LBC Taliban ‘has a lot of information’ and suggests person responsible for leak still works for MoD

Taliban has used major data breach at MoD to target those who helped Britain, says former Afghan interpreter

The Leader of the Opposition's comments come after defence secretary John Healey refused to say whether anyone has lost their job over the breach. 

Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr, former Secretary of State for Defence Penny Mordaunt told LBC that the person responsible for the MoD data breach should lose their job.

Ms Mordaunt said: "I don't think that person should be employed by the MoD. 

"I think this is in part about resetting this, and about saying this is wrong. We need to have trust and confidence going forward".

Speaking to The News Agents' Lewis Goodall, Defence Secretary John Healey said that the defence official responsible for the Afghan data breach is “no longer doing the same job on the Afghan brief” when asked if they are still employed by the British government.

Luke Pollard, Minister of the Armed Forces, told LBC’s Andrew Marr that the Taliban 'has a lot of information already’ about Afghans involved in the data leak, but that they are at ‘no increased risk’ of retaliation.

He told LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr: "What we do know is that the Taliban have access to a lot of information already. Biometrics data, pay records, passport data, a lot of information, and that helps inform our decision. That enabled us to take a different assessment.

“That doesn't mean Afghanistan is a safe place for everyone. That is certainly not the case. But it doesn't necessarily mean that they're at increased risk because they were on the data set that the Ministry of Defence lost in 2022.

“And that's why we've been able to take the different decisions, including giving information to the court that has enabled them to lift the superinjunction, so all of this can be made public."

The Armed Forces minister also suggested the person responsible for the leak still works for the Ministry of Defence.

Rafi, a former Afghan interpreter for the British Forces, spoke on LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, and told the presenter the Taliban may have used the major MoD data breach to target those who helped Britain.

“Afghans entrusted the British government with their data," he told Andrew.

“That data was very crucial for the enemy to target these allies."

When asked by Andrew about the report prepared by former civil servant Paul Rimmer, which says that people who worked with the British are safe in Afghanistan and there will be no reprisals, Rafi rejected this notion.

“That’s not true – there have been cases where allies have disappeared, been killed, tortured, put in prison and beaten - and threatened not to speak to media or report it," he said.

"We don’t know how the Taliban is finding these people but now there’s this leak, we are starting to understand how they had access to this information."

The data breach and subsequent ban on reporting has “endangered lives and prolonged the suffering of those who believed they were reaching safety”, a prominent Afghan community campaigner said.

Dr Nooralhaq Nasimi, who came to the UK in 1999 and founded the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA) to help others, said the Government must “accept full responsibility (and) offer meaningful compensation” to those affected.

He said: “Thousands of Afghans who supported the UK mission – many of whom placed their trust in this country- have had that trust gravely betrayed.

“The data breach, and the years of silence around it, have endangered lives and prolonged the suffering of those who believed they were reaching safety.

“At ACAA, we work daily with people still living in fear because of this failure.

“We now call on the UK Government to accept full responsibility, offer meaningful compensation, and take urgent steps to protect those still at risk. Justice, accountability, and transparency are the minimum owed to those who stood beside Britain in its hour of need.”

Downing Street would not commit to never again using a superinjunction to prevent reporting of its actions.

Asked whether the Government would give such a commitment, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “This was obviously an unprecedented situation.”

He added: “The Government of course welcomes, and as a matter of principle thinks it is right, as you can see in this case, for the public and Parliament to be able to scrutinise all of Government’s plans.”

But asked whether he was ruling out future superinjunctions, he said: “I don’t think it’s something I can comment on.”

The UK's data regulator has called the breach “deeply regrettable' as it put "thousands of vulnerable people at risk”.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said this “should never happen again”, but added that “no further regulatory action is required at this time”. 

Emily Keaney, the ICO deputy commissioner, said in a statement: “Data protection should never be a barrier to sharing information when this is needed to prevent harm and we accept that the initial sharing of the document was intentional and considered under the circumstances.

“However, there were mistakes made beyond this with hidden data in the spreadsheet.

“We have been clear with the MoD that this incident is unacceptable and should never happen again – the stakes are simply too high.

“The public must be able to trust that the Government has measures in place to protect the personal information and security of the most vulnerable people.”

The Government are at risk of facing "strong claims for substantial compensation" from those affected by the data breach, a lawyer has said.

Sean Humber, a specialist data breach lawyer at law firm Leigh Day, who acts for Afghan citizens affected by previous data breaches of their personal data by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), labelled the latest data breach as "catastrophic".

Mr Humber said that those affected could sue the Government over the "distress" caused by the breach.

"Given the extreme sensitivity of the information and the numbers affected, plus the vulnerability of those affected due to the dangers they already face from the Taliban, this data breach can only be described as catastrophic," he said.

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