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The Ministry of Defence has suffered a second catastrophic data breach — this time involving 3,700 Afghans, British personnel, and even former ministers — after a subcontractor’s emails were compromised.

This comes just weeks after the revelation that, back in 2022, the details of almost 19,000 Afghans and more than 100 UK officials were leaked by a civil servant. That scandal cost the MoD’s Permanent Secretary, David Williams, his job.

But here’s the fact: replacing Williams was never going to fix the problem, because the MoD’s failures are systemic.

The department has long relied on poor data-handling practices, a casual approach to outsourcing, and a culture that prioritises damage limitation over genuine reform.

And that’s where Defence Secretary John Healey should have come in.

Healey has been in post for more than a year – since day one of the Labour government.

It was his job to clean up after the Afghan spreadsheet scandal, root out the rot, and make sure there would never be a repeat.

Instead, another failure has already happened — this one through a private contractor, suggesting the government never even checked whether its suppliers were up to the job of keeping vulnerable people safe.

The consequences are not abstract. Afghans who served alongside British troops — who saved British lives — are now at even greater risk of Taliban retribution. Some have already been deported back into danger. British personnel have been exposed too.

We don’t even know the full scale of what has been compromised, or what other risks are being quietly buried.

That is not just an embarrassment.

It is a dereliction of duty.

John Healey can’t hide behind David Williams’s departure anymore.

Civil servants may carry the can inside Whitehall, but ministers carry the responsibility to the public.

Healey promised reform. He promised accountability.

Yet just weeks after Williams left, we have proof that the rot in the MoD has continued, unchecked.

The Defence Secretary owns this failure.

There can be little doubt that, unless the government is forced into genuine, systemic reform of its data security culture, Britain will keep endangering the very people who trusted it most.

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