Overview

• The Ministry of Defence will make ex-gratia payments of up to £4,000 to each of the 265 Afghans affected, amounting to about £1.6 million in total.
• This compensation follows the £350,000 fine imposed by the Information Commissioner’s Office, which warned the 2021 email leak could have posed a life-threatening risk.
• The breach occurred when Arap staff used the ‘‘To’’ field instead of BCC, and two recipients replied all, exposing personal details of evacuees.
• Officials have closed the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme and introduced a requirement for a ‘‘second pair of eyes’’ on external emails.
• Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard pledged to drive improvements in data-handling training and departmentwide email protocols.