Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Afghan relocations and assistance scheme.

The Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) is one of the most generous relocation programmes in the world.

To date, over 9,900 eligible individuals and their families have already safely relocated to the UK under ARAP, and we are working with partners in the region to ensure safe passage of the eligible individuals that we know remain in Afghanistan.

The effective operation of the scheme is kept under regular review within the Department. The continued high number of monthly applications has recently led the Defence Permanent Secretary to dedicate more resources towards processing ARAP applications in the coming weeks and months to reflect the priority of this scheme.