The Government spent nearly £2.5 million on a super-injunction to keep Britain’s most serious data breach under wraps for almost two years, newly released figures reveal.
Almost 24,000 Afghan soldiers and their families were secretly offered asylum in the UK after their details were exposed in a catastrophic leak—an incident now considered the most serious data breach in British history. In the fallout, ministers earmarked £7 billion for the relocation and resettlement of Afghan refugees over a five-year period.
But despite the scale and cost of the operation, the breach was hidden from the public for a total of 683 days. Both the current Labour Government and the previous Conservative administration took the unprecedented step of securing a super-injunction—effectively a legal gagging order—to prevent any details from being reported.
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws show that the super-injunction cost the taxpayer £2.41 million. The Government Legal Department spent almost £1.82 million on lawyers’ time and charges alone, while a further £598,624.68 was paid out in disbursements, according to data published by the political blog Guido Fawkes.
The use of the super-injunction marked the first time ministers had sought such an order “contra mundum”—meaning it applied against the world, not just specific parties. One judge went so far as to describe the move as creating a “scrutiny vacuum,” effectively blocking public debate and press oversight on a matter of huge public interest.
The full details of the breach, the Government’s handling, and the long-term impacts on the Afghan families affected are only now beginning to emerge, as the secrecy lifts and the public counts the financial and political cost.
