John Healey admits there is 'little evidence' of increased risk to Afghan lives after secret data breach: 'British people deserve answers'
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|WATCH NOW: Defence Secretary John Healey grilled by GB News on Afghan asylum scheme

A data breach released the personal details of almost 19,000 Afghans, who were working in support of British troops
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Defence Secretary John Healey has said that the British people "deserve answers" after unveiling the Afghan migrant scheme cover-up.
Speaking to GB News, Healey admitted that those affected by the data breach showed "little evidence" of risk from the Taliban.
On Tuesday, Healey confirmed in the House of Commons that 6,900 Afghans, including family members, will be relocated to Britain at the cost of £850million.
Sharing further details of the newly uncovered scheme, Healey revealed that many of the 19,000 impacted by the data breach have "no connection to Britain".
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|Defence Secretary John Healey admitted that there is 'little evidence' to suggest the people exposed in the data breach are 'at risk' of the Taliban
Healey explained: "There were indeed nearly 19,000 individuals, sort of named on this dataset. In some cases, there were some family members identified. Many of these people have no connection with Britain.
"They're not eligible for the special schemes that Britain put in place to recognise the duty we owe to those who served or worked with our armed forces."
He added: "But nevertheless, this is a huge data breach that had never been disclosed. It led to the previous Government setting up a secret resettlement scheme bringing Afghans into this country and covered all by a totally unprecedented super-injunction that meant that the public couldn't know about this, the press couldn't report about it, and Parliament couldn't scrutinise this."
Stating that he has now ended the "secret scheme", Healey told GB News: "All that changed yesterday because the announcement I was able to make of the Government's change of policy in Parliament yesterday.
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|Healey was grilled by GB News hosts Eamonn Holmes and Nana Akua on the scheme
"I’ve ended this special secret scheme, I've disclosed this data breach and importantly, allowed the judge to respond to my application to have the super-injunction lifted. The British people deserve answers, and from today they can start to get them."
Outlining any possible risk of danger to those affected by the data breach, Healey said it is "highly unlikely" that being a name on the list "increases the risk of being targeted in Afghanistan".
He stated: "Where people have helped our forces, worked alongside our forces, put their own lives on the line, they are eligible for a different scheme, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme, that has had all party support and is an important way that our country discharges that duty to them.
"The names on this list are not eligible for that, and the important step that I've been able to take off the back of an independent review that I commissioned is a fresh look at the situation in Afghanistan now, nearly four years on from the Taliban takeover, which identifies and concludes it's highly unlikely that simply being a name on this data set increases the risk of being targeted in Afghanistan."
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|Healey told GB News that Britons 'deserve answers' after lifting the injunction on the scheme
Calling for those responsible for the breach and the secrecy of the scheme to be "held to account", Healey concluded: "I don't know about you, but I find it deeply uncomfortable, and I'm deeply concerned that we have had a superinjunction on this. After all, our British system works on freedom of the media.
"It works on Parliament being able to challenge and scrutinise the decisions of ministers like me for what we do in people's names, and in particular, it requires us to be able to report to parliament about the policies we put in place, the taxpayers' money that we spent.
"That hasn't been possible with a superinjunction, but that is possible now, and I expect the ministers in the previous Government that took these decisions about the injunction, and in particular, to set up and run this special relocation scheme, I expect them to be held account, just like I'm being held to account, and expect to be held further to account the decisions I've taken."