Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 9
54th Report - Afghanistan Response Route
Published 14 Nov 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We asked the Department how confident it was that it would be able to resettle all those individuals, and how long it would take. The Department said that the estimate of 7,355 was a “maximalist projection” because it expected that around 80% of eligible principals would take up the offer of resettlement.17 The Department said that it would be some years before all eligible individuals who accept the offer of resettlement were relocated to the UK.18 According to Home Office immigration statistics published in August 2025, 3,383 people had arrived in the UK under the ARR by June 2025.19 11 C&AG’s Report, para 26 12 C&AG’s Report, Figures 1, 3 13 C&AG’s Report, para 28 14 Q 45 15 Qq 31, 45 16 Qq 46, 60, 63 17 Q 61 18 Q 62 19 C&AG’s Report, para 29 9 Managing sensitive and personal information
From: Public Accounts Committee, 54th Report - Afghanistan Response Route (HC 1391), 14 November 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-fourth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 14 January 2026).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-fourth report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with four of the Committee's recommendations, including six-monthly updates on ARR resettlement from March 2026, and disagrees with the recommendation on separately capturing ARR costs.
- On updates, the government agrees to write to the Committee every six months from March 2026 until the ARR is complete, though it "may not always be possible to provide a precise breakdown by scheme".
- On the case working system, it agrees, stating the recommendation is implemented and that DACS (introduced in May 2022) addressed "many of the vulnerabilities", with the department "equipped with the right tools to minimise the risk" of a recurrence.
- On scrutiny, it agrees and gives a target date of Spring 2026. The Treasury will issue a Dear Accounting Officer letter on sharing information with the Comptroller and Auditor General in the event of a super-injunction.
- It disagrees on separate ARR costing, saying this would be "disproportionately complex and resource intensive", and instead offers an indicative cost allocation at the end of each financial year, included with the six-monthly updates.