Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 13
First report - Missing in action: UK leadership and the withdrawal from Afghanistan
Published 24 May 2022
Paragraph 43
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee Government policy on Afghanistan All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The FCDO failed to take the basic administrative step of recording its decisions. It is fundamental to any bureaucracy to know precisely what decisions have been made, by whom, with what authority, and when. This would be a serious failure at any time, but during the withdrawal from Afghanistan may have led to the loss of life. It is the responsibility of the Permanent Under-Secretary to ensure that this system operates effectively. The Committee has lost confidence in the Permanent Under- Secretary, who should consider his position.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, First report - Missing in action: UK leadership and the withdrawal from Afghanistan (HC 169), paragraph 43, 24 May 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 29 July 2022 (deadline 24 July 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government accepts that parts of its crisis response need improvement and agrees on future engagement with Afghanistan, but does not agree that it failed to plan for an evacuation or for closing the Kabul Embassy.
- It states that it "does not agree that it failed to plan for a possible evacuation", or that the FCDO failed to plan for the possible closure of the British Embassy in Kabul.
- On people not directly employed by the UK, it "will consider these arguments carefully" in planning years 2 and 3 of Pathway 3 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, but warns that very broad commitments would, "unless significantly qualified", go beyond the UK's practical ability to resettle people.
- The FCDO says it is "committed to seeing through the full implementation" of its Lessons Learned recommendations, with progress reviewed in November 2022 and an update to the Committee "early next year".
- On future engagement, it agrees that the UK should re-establish a diplomatic presence in Kabul "as soon as security and political conditions permit", and that aid should be sustained, committing the same amount again this financial year.