5
Conclusion
54th Report - Afghanistan Response Route
Rejected
The Department did not put in place a mechanism to accurately identify and account for the costs of resettling individuals who were at high risk due to the data breach. The Department accounted for the costs of the ARR within its total spending on Afghan resettlement schemes, rather than identifying …
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The Department did not put in place a mechanism to accurately identify and account for the costs of resettling individuals who were at high risk due to the data breach. The Department accounted for the costs of the ARR within its total spending on Afghan resettlement schemes, rather than identifying them separately, arguing that this was necessary to avoid breaching the terms of super-injunction. The Department now acknowledges that it could, in anticipation of the super-injunction being lifted and the resulting parliamentary scrutiny, have accounted for the costs of the ARR separately. Many elements of the ARR and the pre-existing ARAP, such as flights and accommodation, were the same and so it should have been perfectly possible for the Department to determine the costs of each scheme. The Department estimates that the ARR scheme—the additional programme put in place as a direct result of the data breach—will cost around £850 million in total, with around £400 million spent by July 2025. This estimate does not include legal costs, or the potential cost of future compensation claims against the Department from affected individuals. The Department has so far been unable to provided sufficient evidence to give the NAO confidence in its estimate. The Department anticipates being able to give the NAO more detailed information on costs as part of its next report on the Afghanistan resettlement schemes overall. 5 recommendation In its Treasury Minute response to this report, the Department should explain how it is ensuring that the resettlement costs related to the ARR are now being captured separately and accurately in its accounting system. 6 Managing personal information and the risk of a data breach Introduction
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Government response AI summary
The government rejected the recommendation to capture Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) costs separately due to complexity, proposing instead to provide an indicative cost allocation for both schemes at the end of each financial year via an average cost per person calculation.
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HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
54th Report - Afghanistan Response Route
Rejected
At the time of publication of the NAO’s report, the Department had not provided the NAO with enough evidence to have confidence in the completeness and accuracy of the Department’s cost estimates.62 The Department estimates the total cost of the ARR to be £850 million, of which about £400 million …
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At the time of publication of the NAO’s report, the Department had not provided the NAO with enough evidence to have confidence in the completeness and accuracy of the Department’s cost estimates.62 The Department estimates the total cost of the ARR to be £850 million, of which about £400 million has been spent so far, with £450 million to come. The Department said that it could, in anticipation of the super-injunction being lifted and the resulting parliamentary scrutiny, have accounted for the costs of the ARR separately.63 The Department told us that the overall cost of the ARAP scheme, the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) run by the Home Office and the ARR scheme could be over £5 billion.64 The Department said it was possible that it would be able to provide a more detailed breakdown that would allow the C&AG to give us more assurance about costs. The C&AG expects to produce his next report on Afghan resettlement in the first part of next year.65
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Government response AI summary
The government rejects separately accounting for the ARR scheme due to complexity but proposes an alternative approach to provide indicative cost allocations for both schemes at the end of each financial year.
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HM Treasury