MoD confirms 49 personal data breaches related to Afghan resettlement schemes
23/10/2025 | Public Technology
Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary David Williams has detailed dozens of data breaches related to the department's handling of schemes to assist Afghan nationals who worked for the UK government. In a letter to the Public Accounts Committee, Williams listed 49 data incidents linked to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Ex-Gratia Scheme.
The reported breaches fall into three categories: the 2022 personal data breach that exposed the identities of thousands of Afghans and British military officials, a Microsoft Forms issue in October 2021, and a series of blind carbon copy (BCC) errors that exposed the identities of hundreds of recipients of group messages.
Of the 49 incidents, only a minority were reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The unreported breaches included sharing insecure personal data via WhatsApp, sending personal data to the wrong recipients, and emails containing data at the wrong classification level. Williams noted that the ICO is satisfied with the MoD's judgement on which incidents were reported.
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