Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether applications to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme are decided strictly in the order in which they were submitted.

As at 22nd February over 110,000 applications have been received to the Afghan Relocation & Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme and a dedicated team of caseworkers are working 7 days a week to process these applications. Routinely, applications are progressed in the order they have been received. In some cases, further information has to be requested from the applicant, and subject to that being received (and when) this may have implications for when decisions on the application are made. In exceptional circumstances, HMG may expedite ARAP applications. This will generally (but not exclusively) be where ARAP caseworkers become aware that there is credible evidence one or more of the following applies: there is an unusually high and imminent threat to life; the applicant requires immediate life-saving medical treatment for a medical condition unavailable in their current location; there are implications for diplomatic and international relations; or there are implications for national security.

We continue to devote significant resources to this task; and, to date our efforts have resulted in the relocation to the UK of over 8,000 ARAP principals and their dependants.