18 Accepted

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
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to work with the Committee to ensure timely information sharing, committing to new guidance from the Treasury Officer of Accounts by Spring 2026 on super-injunctions and C&AG communication, and a Dear Accounting Officer letter to be incorporated into Managing Public Money.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2026 4.2 The department will continue to work with the Committee to ensure they have sufficient and timely information to enable them to undertake their roles in the context of any similar situations in the future. The department is keeping under review how this is done in the most extreme cases where secrecy poses a challenge to the normal processes. This will be covered by the new guidance issued by the Treasury Officer of Accounts on how to act in the event of a super-injunction. 4.3 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2026 4.4 The Treasury will issue a Dear Accounting Officer letter to provide guidance on this issue. This will include guidance on the principles and practicalities of sharing information with the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) in the event of a super-injunction, with particular consideration of the statutory duty to give assistance, information and explanation to the C&AG to enable them to meet their statutory duty to examine government department’s accounts. The guidance will then be incorporated into the next update of Managing Public Money.
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age 0.7 yr
Report published 14 Nov 2025