MoD Afghan Data Breach Superinjunction

A spreadsheet sent by a UK Ministry of Defence worker in February 2022 contained hidden personal information about more than 18,500 Afghan resettlement applicants and family members.

After discovering the breach in August 2023, the government sought legal restrictions because disclosure could expose vulnerable people to reprisals; the High Court then imposed a superinjunction on 1 September 2023 that also restricted publication of the order itself. Subsequent parliamentary and judicial scrutiny examined the Ministry’s handling of the breach and distinguished its request from the court’s broader order.