In a shocking revelation, Sir Ben Wallace, the former Defence Secretary, has criticised the use of a secret gagging order to cover up a catastrophic data breach that potentially put thousands of Afghans who helped UK forces at risk from the Taliban. The data breach occurred in 2023 after an official emailed a spreadsheet of contact details outside the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Speaking to MPs on the defence committee, Sir Ben said he would not have backed the use of a “superinjunction” to keep the breach under wraps. He stated that his priority was to protect the people in Afghanistan and then open up the issue to the public, rather than trying to cover up the government’s mistake.
The leak, which was discovered in August 2023, led to thousands of Afghans being secretly relocated to the UK. It was only revealed to the public when a High Court judge lifted the unprecedented gagging order, known as a superinjunction, in July 2025. This came after The Independent and other media organisations successfully fought to lift the order, which had been in place for 22 months.
Sir Ben told MPs that he had directed the use of a time-limited injunction to protect the news of the data leak while the MoD scrambled to understand what had gone wrong. However, he was clear from the start that the government should not entirely cover up the breach.
“We are not covering up our mistakes. The priority is to protect the people in Afghanistan and then open it up to the public. We need to say a certain amount are out of danger,” Sir Ben said.
The former Defence Secretary also criticised the government’s use of secrecy to justify low spending on defence, stating that the public were kept in the dark about the general threat to the UK from “bad actors” in order to avoid public pressure on the exchequer for more funding.
This revelation has sparked a wider debate about the government’s use of secrecy and its impact on public accountability. Former armed forces minister James Heappey also expressed concerns about the amount of information withheld from MPs, stating that he was “increasingly uncomfortable” with the lack of transparency.
As the fallout from the Afghan data breach continues, the government will face increasing pressure to be more open and transparent about its actions, particularly when it comes to matters of national security and the protection of vulnerable individuals.
