First Sea Lord: I will take full responsibility for Afghan data breach if found responsible
The First Sea Lord, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, has said he is happy to take responsibility for the data breach that exposed the identities of thousands of Afghan nationals who had worked with British forces during he war in Afghanistan, if he were found responsible.
While speaking before the Defence Committee, chair Tan Dhesi asked Gen Sir Gwyn whether he had considered resigning, taking leadership responsibility or any other form of personal accountability for the breach.
"I won't step over what an inquiry might say," Sir Gwyn said. "I can only say that I'm very happy to take responsibility if I'm found to be responsible for that data breach."
He said he had never considered resigning because "I didn't believe that I was responsible at that point for any of those breaches, or that decision".
The data breach occurred in February 2022 when an MOD official inadvertently sent a database comprising details of nearly 19,000 people fleeing from the Taliban via unsecured emails.
The error was not publicly disclosed at the time.
The database also included details of some MI6 operatives and UK Special Forces personnel.
It led to thousands of Afghans being secretly relocated to the UK and was only revealed last year after the High Court lifted a gagging order, allowing the case to be reported publicly for the first time.
Resettlement of the Afghan Triples
Mr Dhesi later questioned the First Sea Lord about the verification process used to resettle hundreds of former members of the Afghan special forces, known as the Triples, into the UK.
He said the process had been termed by many as "slack and unprofessional" because it led to the massive rejection of applications for resettlement, which were later overturned in a review.
Mr Dhesi then asked whether Gen Sir Gwyn accepted any leadership responsibility for the matter, to which he replied: "The processes that were in place at that time and were then revised demonstrated that we were a learning organisation, and that we were taking action based on discrepancies when they were identified."
On 26 March, ministers announced that 884 decisions, affecting ex-soldiers from two elite Afghan units had been overturned.
They will be eligible to stay in Britain under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap), subject to visa checks.
The Arap scheme was set up in April 2021 to help people who feared their lives were at risk because they had worked with the UK Armed Forces before the Taliban takeover later in the year.
However, in February 2024, the then-Conservative government conceded some Arap decisions were "not robust" and promised to re-examine 2,000 cases, including troops who served in Triples units Commando Force 333 (CF333) and Afghan Territorial Force (ATF444).
Approximately 3,100 Triples applications had been assessed as part of the review, officials said.
Parliament had previously been told there was no evidence of direct employment, which had been used as the basis for rejecting applications under the Arap scheme.
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