Letter from DARR to individuals who have relocated to the UK under the ARP regarding the 2022 data incident
Published 15 July 2025
© Crown copyright 2025
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letters-from-defence-afghan-relocation-and-resettlement-darr-uk-ministry-of-defence-to-afghan-resettlement-programme-arp-individuals-regarding-2/letter-from-darr-to-individuals-who-have-relocated-to-the-uk-under-the-arp-regarding-the-2022-data-incident
We are writing to inform you of a data loss incident that affects applications to the ARAP and EGS made on or before 7 January 2022. This incident occurred when a spreadsheet used for case working was sent outside of official UK Government systems in February 2022 due to a departmental error, in a clear breach of our strict data protection protocols.
The Ministry of Defence sincerely apologises for any concern this news will have caused. Everyone who applied for resettlement should have been able to do so in the knowledge that their information would be safe and secure. As someone who has been relocated to the UK through the ARP, your status has not been affected.
In response to this incident, the Government carefully considered any risk this compromised data posed to affected individuals and took proactive actions including relocations to the UK via the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR). We have also acted to prevent the data being shared further. To confirm whether your data was included in the incident, please use the self-checker tool at: Data Incident Self-Checker.
If you have any questions or require support, further information is available at the Ministry of Defence’s Information Service Centre.