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The action follows a BBC report that papers were found at a bus station in Kent, southeast England.
“The Department of Defense was notified last week of an incident in which a member of the public retrieved sensitive defense papers,” the spokesperson told CNN in a statement on Sunday.
“The management takes information security very seriously and an investigation has been opened. The employee in question reported his loss at that time.”
The BBC said the documents, numbering nearly 50 pages, were passed on by members of the public when they realized the sensitive nature of the files, and the incident comes after a British warship – the HMS Defender – was involved in a standoff. With Russian forces off the coast of the disputed Crimea region on Wednesday. Russia says one of its warplanes dropped bombs and a patrol boat fired warning shots to return the British destroyer, which it claims entered its territorial waters in the Black Sea. The British Ministry of Defense denied Moscow’s accusations, saying the ship was in legal and innocent passage.
The BBC reports that documents found at the bus station discuss Russia’s possible reactions to the passage of HMS Defender on Wednesday.
Asked about the contents of documents related to HMS Defender, a DoD spokesperson told CNN: “As the public would expect, DoD plans carefully. As a routine, this includes analyzing all potential factors that influence operational decisions.”
“HMS Defender carried out innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law”.
It was alleged that the missing documents also discussed the possibility of a British military presence in Afghanistan after the end of the NATO mission in that country. CNN cannot independently verify the contents of documents. The Department of Defense did not comment on Afghanistan when contacted by CNN.
Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis described the incident as a “serious breach” of security, speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday.
“To some extent, procedures were followed; this was reported by the individual as soon as he learned he had left those documents and it is clear that someone handed them over to the BBC, but there will be a full investigation by the Department of Defense as to how that was,” Lewis said.
“We have to make sure when things like this happen, human error or otherwise, that it can’t happen again.”
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