Audit Office says MoD can’t prove £850m Afghan data breach cost as bill heads beyond £2bn

The government has been accused of failing to properly account for hundreds of millions of pounds spent after a catastrophic Afghan data breach, with the National Audit Office (NAO) warning it cannot verify the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) £850m estimate.

The spending watchdog said the MoD has not provided enough evidence to support its figures, leaving unanswered questions about how much the government has spent protecting Afghans exposed by the leak.

The data breach, revealed only this summer after a super-injunction was lifted, exposed the personal details of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to relocate to the UK following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Names, contact details and family information were mistakenly shared in a spreadsheet in 2022, alongside the identities of British officials, including special forces personnel.

The leak triggered fears of reprisals from the Taliban against those Afghans who had worked alongside British troops during the war. More than 16,000 Afghans and family members were already eligible under an existing resettlement scheme, but the government was forced to create a new, secret pathway — the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) — in April 2024. That route allowed a further 7,000 people to come to the UK.

The MoD now says the cost of resettling each person stands at £128,000, with the total bill for Afghan resettlement forecast to exceed £2bn. However, the NAO report found the department had not separately identified the costs of the ARR scheme within its accounting systems. Instead, they were folded into wider Afghan resettlement spending, making them invisible in management accounts.

“The MoD is not able to determine exactly what it has spent on resettling people through the ARR scheme,” the NAO said. “This lack of clarity means we cannot confirm whether its £850m estimate is accurate.”

Legal costs and compensation claims — both expected to be significant — were also excluded from the MoD’s estimate, raising the likelihood that the true financial impact of the breach could be far higher.

The MoD insisted it remains committed to transparency and to supporting those Afghans whose lives were endangered. “We are committed to honouring the moral obligation we owe to those Afghans who stood with us and risked their lives,” a spokesperson said.

They added: “Since taking the decision to support the lifting of the super-injunction brought by the previous government, we have been clear on the costs associated with relocating eligible Afghans to the UK — and are fully committed to transparency. The cost of all Afghan resettlement schemes, including the Afghan Response Route, has been fully funded as part of the Government’s Spending Review.”

The report adds fresh pressure on ministers already criticised for their handling of Afghan resettlement since the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in 2021. Critics argue that the UK has failed to adequately protect those who worked alongside British troops, with many still trapped in Afghanistan and at risk.

For those who did arrive under the ARR and earlier programmes, integration into UK communities has come at a significant cost. Housing, healthcare and education provision are all included in the MoD’s estimates, but the lack of precise accounting leaves open questions about whether public money has been spent efficiently.

With costs already expected to surpass £2bn, and further claims likely, the Afghan data breach remains one of the most expensive and damaging administrative blunders in recent government history