Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish any documents about vetting or security clearance processes that were given to applicants of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
When the Taleban seized control in 2021, many thousands of people who served and supported our British Armed Forces were left in Afghanistan.
The UK made a commitment to honour the moral obligation we owe to those Afghans who stood with us and there was cross party support for this at the time. This became the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.
All those resettling in the UK under Afghan resettlement schemes are coming to the UK legally. As with all those arriving to the UK, all those found eligible for ARAP have to undergo robust security checks, including for national security. If they don’t pass these checks, they are not granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK
An application must first be made, by the applicant, to the Ministry of Defence, who will decide if the applicant is eligible. If they are eligible for relocation to the UK, the second stage is that the Ministry Of Defence (MOD) will on behalf of the applicant, make an application to the Home Office for entry clearance (if they are outside the UK) or settlement (if they are in the UK). Eligibility does not guarantee resettlement in the UK. Those who are eligible must first undergo checks in accordance with the UK Immigration Rules
The MOD, as part of the first stage, sends an offer letter to Eligible Persons (EPs) which details the vetting and security process that applicants must go through to enter the UK and signposts EPs to the Government's Immigration Rules for further guidance. Permission to enter the UK is subject to the enrolment of biometrics and security checks run by the Home Office as part of the second stage.
National security is a priority for this Government and all ARAP eligible individuals who arrive in the UK will have undergone thorough security checks.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Coaker on 9 May (HL6830) on radiation exposure of veterans, what progress they have made in obtaining the information requested, writing in response, and placing a copy of that letter in the Library of the House.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This Government has reset the relationship with nuclear test veterans and the organisations that support them, and we remain committed to listening to their concerns and working collaboratively to address them.
As of 30 June 2025, officials have reviewed over 43,000 files, including files from the Merlin Database, as part of the exercise that is looking at concerns raised with me about some Nuclear Test Veterans’ medical records. I will update the House when we are in a position to share the findings of the exercise.
This Government continues to celebrate the stories of our nuclear veterans. Most recently the Universities of South Wales and Liverpool led a government-funded oral history project which was published in early July.
Nuclear test veterans who believe they have suffered ill health due to service have the existing and long standing right to apply for no-fault compensation under the War Pensions Scheme.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to trace former British troops and their descendants affected by human radiation experiments; and what compensation, if any, has been paid to them.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This Government has reset the relationship with nuclear test veterans and the organisations that support them, and we remain committed to listening to their concerns and working collaboratively to address them.
As of 30 June 2025, officials have reviewed over 43,000 files, including files from the Merlin Database, as part of the exercise that is looking at concerns raised with me about some Nuclear Test Veterans’ medical records. I will update the House when we are in a position to share the findings of the exercise.
This Government continues to celebrate the stories of our nuclear veterans. Most recently the Universities of South Wales and Liverpool led a government-funded oral history project which was published in early July.
Nuclear test veterans who believe they have suffered ill health due to service have the existing and long standing right to apply for no-fault compensation under the War Pensions Scheme.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish all external contractors that worked on the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
A wide variety of contractors have supported the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), with some involved in sensitive operational activities. As a result, a comprehensive list of external contractors that worked on ARAP cannot be published due to both operational risks and commercial sensitivity.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the outcome of Project ATHENA 2, which was due to take place between 2022 and 2023, at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate; and whether they will place a copy of the results of the project in the Library of the House.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
It will take time to collate and review the information needed to answer the noble Lady's question. I will write to her shortly and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many junior soldiers residing at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate who entered in September 2024 were care leavers.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
There are 39 Junior Soldiers registered as care leavers from the September 2024 intake.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any provisions of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill and Schools Bill will apply to the Ministry of Defence as an employer and educator.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) supports this Bill as we are aware of the unique challenges our personnel and their families face. While much of this Bill will not apply to schools overseas run by the MOD, we will support aspects that impact our work, primarily around safeguarding. As part of our commitment to our Service families we take the safeguarding of children particularly seriously, and we have a strong social-work service and well-trained teams supporting each branch of the military wherever they are posted, including overseas. Our teams also work very closely with the Department for Education and Devolved Administrations to ensure Service children’s wellbeing and education is supported.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the breakdown of costs, by month, of flights used on the Afghanistan Response Route since its inception, including costs of (1) any Royal Air Force or government flights, and (2) any charter flights, with details of which organisation provided the charter.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
In February 2022, under the previous Government a spreadsheet with names and other information relating of individual applicants of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) – the resettlement scheme for Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan – was emailed outside of official Government systems.
The previous Government decided to seek an injunction concerning the breach and the High Court granted a super-injunction. They also decided to set up a new secret resettlement route, called the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR). The ARR was created to support a limited cohort of people who were affected by the data loss incident and who were previously thought to be at the highest risk, into the UK.
The current Secretary of State then commissioned an independent policy review from former Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence, Paul Rimmer. This began earlier this year and was presented to Ministers in June. The review examined the overall policy context in spring 2025, three years since the data incident and concluded that it appears “highly unlikely” that merely being on the dataset would be grounds for targeting.
As the Defence Secretary outlined in his oral statement of 15 July 2025, the Rimmer review was a very significant element in the Government’s decision to change policy to close the ARR, though not the sole element. We have now made the matter public so it can be subject to full Parliamentary scrutiny.
To resettle those under the ARR, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) uses mixed cohort flights to relocate Afghans to the UK under the schemes that make up the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP). This includes the ARR and ARAP scheme. These flights have also included a small number of persons eligible for the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).
The MOD has used both RAF and charter flights. Additionally, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to resettle eligible Afghans has run charter flights. For reasons that are commercially and operationally sensitive, we cannot name the companies that organised the charter flights.
The average total monthly costs from MOD charter flights, Royal Air Force flights and IOM charter flights is to date £457,833.33.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Afghans have arrived in the UK under the relocation scheme arising from the 2022 data leak of their identities.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As of 15 July 2025, under the Afghanistan Response Route, 900 principals are in Britain or in transit, together with 3,600 family members.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56739 on Strategic Defence Review, whether the embargoed defence review document was classified as (a) market-sensitive and (b) in scope of the UK Market Abuse Regulation.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) contains only strategic recommendations to Government. It does not contain any specific new contract details for any company. As the Government has now confirmed a number of times, at no point did stakeholders receive any commercially sensitive information ahead of publication. The SDR was not classified as market sensitive or in scope of the UK Market Abuse Regulation.