Recommendation 4

HM Government Acknowledged

The Chair of the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy wrote to Sir Stephen Lovegrove on 22 June seeking his response to these findings of the Committee’s report. The pace and intensity of cross-Government work on Afghanistan increased significantly from early 2021. Between January and October 2021, there were 11 NSCs or Ministerial COBRs on Afghanistan, usually chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by Cabinet Ministers from across Government. There were three NSC (Officials) meetings. There were 14 official-level COBRs chaired by the National Security Adviser and 28 chaired by the Deputy National Security Adviser. Following the decision in April 2021 that NATO forces would leave Afghanistan, the NSC examined the feasibility of the UK retaining a presence after NATO troops had departed. Ministers decided that the UK should seek to maintain an Embassy in Kabul for as long as possible, as a platform to continue to provide support to the then Afghan Government, to carry out priority development, counter terrorism, and serious and organised crime work, and to be able to deliver the ARAP scheme. At the same time, Cabinet Ministers asked Departments to work up contingency options for continuing priority work, in the event that the British Embassy had to be downsized, relocated to a less vulnerable site, or closed entirely. Under the last of these potential scenarios, each Department was asked to examine whether and how it might deliver priority work remotely, either from the UK, or from the region. In late April 2021, the FCDO established an Afghanistan Transition Task Force, led by Sir Laurie Bristow (before he became UK Ambassador in Kabul). Its focus was on the urgent practical challenges that needed to be addressed in order to be confident that the UK could safely maintain staff at the Kabul Embassy compound after NATO forces had withdrawn on the July timetable set by the Commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. From April to June 2021, the Government worked intensively with the US and other Allies to ensure that the necessary security and other critical enablers, to sustain the presence of Allied Embassies would be in place before NATO forces left. These included ensuring that Kabul International Airport was viable, maintaining the integrity of the Green Zone in which the British and most allied Embassies were located, and ensuring the availability of relevant enabling support. The Prime Minister received an assurance at the time of the G7 summit from President Biden that those enablers would be in place before the final departure of NATO troops. Concurrently, over spring 2021, detailed planning led by PJHQ continued on updating and refining Op PITTING in light of the impending departure of NATO troops. PJHQ planners were deployed to Afghanistan in June 2021, joining up PJHQ with the British Embassy. Brigadier Dan Blanchford, who was to command Op PITTING in Kabul in August, visited Kabul during this preparatory phase, spending time with the British Ambassador and Embassy team. In January 2021, the British Embassy started scoping locations in Kabul for an Evacuation Handling Centre. The Baron Hotel, just outside the airport perimeter, was chosen in April, and detailed talks began with the hotel management, resulting in the signature of a contract for the provision of the handling centre. This made the UK the only country to have made this critical preparation. Because the UK had done so, the Baron Hotel would become a centre for international co-ordination when it came to the evacuation in mid-August. As the Taliban made progressive territorial gains through May and June 2021, and put regional capitals at risk, delivery of the ARAP scheme was accelerated, and the tempo of planning for Op PITTING increased. Parallel contingency planning for closing the British