Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2022 to Question 19629 on Afghanistan: Refugees, how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff employed by his Department (i) in the UK and (ii) overseas are assigned to dealing with outstanding Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy applications as of 30 June 2022.

As of 30 June 2022, there were a total of 91 personnel assigned to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme, broken down as follows:

a) There are 85 full-time staff working on the ARAP scheme.

i. 71 are in the UK

ii. 14 are overseas

b) There are six part-time staff working on the ARAP scheme.

i. six are in the UK

ii. 0 are overseas

These figures include both civilian and military staff making eligibility decisions, policy and legal teams who are working to arrange relocation of, and those based in the UK and in third countries who are working to arrange relocation of eligible persons. Figures include short term augmentees which vary over time; recent recruitment means that the team is increasingly resourced by permanent staff.

We anticipate new routes opening with the support of partners on the region that will allow us to accelerate the flow of ARAP personnel leaving Afghanistan. In anticipation of this, additional staffing resource will be allocated to the team to allow decisions to continue to be made at the pace egress routes allow.