The defence secretary has told Sky News he is “deeply uncomfortable” with the government using a super-injunction to keep a massive data breach hidden.
Almost 7,000 Afghan nationals are being relocated to the UK as a result of the breach by the British military, with the personal information of close to 20,000 individuals who helped or worked with UK forces being exposed.
John Healey told Matt Barbet on Breakfast: “I’m really deeply uncomfortable with the idea that a government applies for a super-injunction.
“If there are any [other] super-injunctions in place, I just have to tell you – I don’t know about them. I haven’t been read into them.
“The important thing here now is that we’ve closed the scheme.”
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Mr Healey defended the government’s decision to keep secret a huge data leak that put thousands of lives at risk.
The defence secretary said when he first came into government, “we had to sort out a situation which we’d not had access to dealing with before”.
“That meant getting on top of the risks, the intelligence assessments, the policy complexities, the court papers and the range of Afghan relocation schemes the previous government had put in place,” he said.
“And it also meant taking decisions that no one takes lightly because lives may be at stake.”
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Mr Healey added that an independent review he launched says that it is now “highly unlikely that being a name on this data set that was lost three-and-a-half years ago increases the risk of being targeted”, which is why the breach can now be revealed.
Ministers have to account for applying for a super-injunction
Challenged on why it could not be revealed earlier if those on the list are no longer at risk, Mr Healey said the super-injunction “was a matter for the court”.
He said ministers needed to provide judges with a “fresh assessment” in order to have the super-injunction lifted.
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Victim of Afghan data breach speaks to Sky
Mr Healey also refused to criticise the former Conservative defence minister Ben Wallace for initially applying for the super-injunction, saying he did not know what information the minister had when he took the decision.
“But the important thing is they now have to account for those decisions,” he added.
The defence secretary was asked about who exactly is responsible for the massive data leak that is estimated to have cost millions of pounds.
Mr Healey responded that he is “not going to launch a witch hunt or point the finger at him”.
It follows former veterans minister Johnny Mercer writing publicly that he claims to know the person responsible.
Challenged on whether it is not a “witch hunt”, but accountability, Mr Healey hit back.
He said: “This goes much bigger than the mistaken actions of a single individual. My job as defence secretary, a year ago, was to get on top of the problems that I inherited.”
Mr Healey explained this is why he launched an independent review and the super-injunction ended, which means the leak and the subsequent scheme to bring those at risk to the UK can now face “proper scrutiny and accountability”.