Revelation of 97 million new documents to Afghan inquiry 'staggering and worrying'

The MOD has apologised to the chair of the Afghan inquiry for delays in failing to explain why it unexpectedly revealed a further 97 million new documents, saying it estimates around 1,200 might be relevant.

The inquiry is investigating allegations that British Special Forces murdered unarmed Afghan civilians between mid-2010 and mid-2013.

The chair, Lord Justice Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, called an urgent hearing after describing the late appearance of the documents as "troubling and regrettable".

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He said the "somewhat casual way" the inquiry was informed about the 97 million documents "did not give cause for confidence".

Lord Justice Haddon-Cave told the hearing the MOD had informed them about the documents on 6 August and despite asking them to explain how and why this had happened by 25 August, they were still waiting and had not received the information they requested after following up several times, so wrote again on 16 September.

Speaking on behalf of the MOD, Stephen Gray KC addressed the hearing and described the delay as an "undoubtedly regrettable failure".

He said: "The Ministry of Defence deeply regrets the failure to engage more promptly with the important and urgent matters raised in that letter from the inquiry."

He added: "I therefore do ask that you both accept the Ministry of Defence's apology" and said "the Ministry of Defence is determined that this be an isolated episode".

He explained that the documents were uploaded to the MOD's Digital Archive System, known as DAS, back in July.

Mr Gray told the hearing: "The material recovered and uploaded onto the DAS from Afghanistan does not include UK Special Forces IT systems."

1,200 further documents

He added: "It remains the case that the overwhelming majority of potentially relevant UK Special Forces documentation has been located through searches of those UK Special Forces systems."

He said: "[The upload of the new documents] was an electronic document and records management system used across the MOD.

"On that basis alone, it is logical to assume that the vast majority of this material will very likely be wholly irrelevant to the inquiry's work – less than 3% of that – material uploaded was held on a secret system."

Mr Gray said key word searches which were agreed with the inquiry in respect of the Deliberate Detention Operations, which are the subject of phase three of the inquiry's investigation strategy, have now been run through DAS.

He said: "The result, for the various reasons explained in yesterday's letter which are based on relatively conservative estimates at the different stages of the document analysis and review process, is the estimated disclosure from these 97 million files to the inquiry, of approximately, based on previous experience, 1,200 further documents, although we should stress that this figure could end up being very much lower than that given the assumptions applied."

Mr Gray said the MOD believes the assessment of the new documents won't delay the current timetable.

Deadline must be kept to

The investigation has already come under scrutiny for failing to produce a report in more than three years, despite Lord Justice Haddon-Cave saying it would aim to report within the first 12 to 18 months.

Lord Justice Haddon-Cave said the deadline for receiving evidence to the inquiry has been set for 30 April 2027 and "must be kept to".

He said: "It would not be fair to all those awaiting answers from this inquiry, in particular the veterans, the serving military, their families, all the Afghan families, let alone the public, if the inquiry was to be held up yet further because of a failure by the government."

Staggering and profoundly worrying

Speaking on behalf of the Afghan families, Edward Craven KC told the hearing: "From the perspective of the bereaved Afghan families as well as being troubling and regrettable, the developments are also difficult to comprehend."

He added: "We simply don't understand how it can have been the case that for three years the Ministry of Defence has been conducting its Rule 9 disclosure searches without reference to a repository of almost 100 million documents from the period covered by the inquiry's terms of reference, and from our perspective this week's revelations are staggering and profoundly worrying."

Mr Craven raised concerns about the assurances given by the MOD.

He told the chair of the inquiry: "You've received assurances that the inquiry's timetable won't be derailed by these developments.

"We obviously sincerely hope that that is the case, but given the volume of this newly discovered repository of material and given our own experiences of issues with MOD disclosure in the inquiry and in the preceding judicial review proceedings we do feel a degree of scepticism as to whether that is indeed going to be the case."

The next open hearings of the inquiry to take place will be on 12 and 16 October.

An MOD spokesperson said:

"We remain fully committed to supporting the Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan and assisting it in getting to the truth and continue to cooperate fully with the inquiry.

"We regret that our engagement with the Inquiry on this issue was not as prompt or consistent as it should have been and are taking steps to ensure timely and constructive communication in the future.

"These records were identified as part of the significant work the Department has undertaken to identify, review and disclose material relevant to the Inquiry. As people will understand, given the passage of time, the complexity of legacy systems and the nature of records created during two decades of operations in Afghanistan, this remains a substantial and ongoing task."