Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Super-injunction upheld, limiting ministerial briefing on data breach to a select few.
Conclusion
The High Court and the Court of Appeal upheld the super-injunction in several subsequent private hearings and judgments between 2023 and 2025.43 The Department said that in September 2023, it expected that an injunction might be in place for at most, a few months.44 The issue could have been raised in Parliament while the super-injunction was in place, but was not publicly disclosed in the House of Commons.45 The Department said that Ministers made a judgment around balancing the risk to life and supporting the injunction by limiting those in the circle of knowledge to those who had an absolute need to know. Ministers decided to ‘read in’ 40 C&AG’s Report, para 10 41 C&AG’s Report, para 17 42 Q 28 43 C&AG’s Report, para 18 44 Q 31 45 C&AG’s Report, para 18 13 the Speaker, his Lords equivalent and the shadow Defence Secretary.46 We asked about the Department’s consideration of whether to read in the Chair of PAC and the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG). The Department said it had conversations with Ministers about reading in the Chairs of a small number of Select Committees, but in the end, the ministerial decision was not to do so.47