© National Audit Office 2026

Investigation into the Afghan resettlement schemes

Cross-government

Session 2024–2026
18 March 2026
HC 1646

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Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General

Ordered by the House of Commons
to be printed on 16 March 2026

This report has been prepared under Section 6 of the National Audit Act 1983 for presentation to the House of Commons in accordance with Section 9 of the Act

Gareth Davies
Comptroller and Auditor General
National Audit Office

12 March 2026

Investigations

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017053 03/26 NAO

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The National Audit Office study team consisted of:

Alice Broughton, Rachel Kift and Grace Williams, under the direction of Helen Holden.

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Key facts

Summary

1 Between October 2001 and late August 2021, the UK had a military presence in Afghanistan. During this 20-year period, the UK government employed local Afghan citizens. This work sometimes came with significant risk to those Afghan citizens and their families, who feared reprisals from the Taliban. From 2010, the UK offered the possibility of resettlement to certain groups of Afghan citizens in specific circumstances.

2 During 2021, the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated and the government adapted its resettlement approach to reflect the increased risk to people, introducing two new resettlement schemes. The new schemes, summarised in Figure 1, were the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). Under both schemes eligible people were also entitled to bring their families, where they were deemed eligible and suitable for relocation.

3 In autumn 2023, after discovering a significant data breach which had occurred in February 2022, the government began work to establish a further Afghan resettlement scheme, the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR). This was designed for people whose details were in the compromised dataset and who were not eligible for the ARAP scheme but were at high risk of reprisals by the Taliban as a result of the data breach. The ARR, which was launched in April 2024, was covered by a super-injunction granted by the High Court which prevented disclosure of the data breach and the existence of the ARR, until the super-injunction was lifted on 15 July 2025. The High Court accepted the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) assessment that, if the existence of the data loss became widely known, the Taliban would be highly likely to obtain the data, which would put the safety and lives of many individuals and their families at risk. Although the ARR was a new resettlement route, the process for resettling people once eligibility had been assessed, and the resettlement offer, were the same as the ARAP scheme.

4 On 1 July 2025, the government closed the ARAP and ACRS schemes to new applications and referrals. On 4 July, the government decided to also close the ARR. It announced this on 15 July following the lifting of the super-injunction. There are still large numbers of people going through the resettlement process and the government anticipates that resettlement and integration activity will continue until 2032-33.

5 Responsibilities for different elements of the resettlement schemes are spread across several different departments and have changed over time. The main departments are the MoD, the Home Office, the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Other bodies involved include local authorities, international organisations and community sponsor groups.

Our report

6 Following the lifting of the super-injunction, we committed to publishing two reports relating to the Afghan resettlement schemes. Our first report in September 2025 specifically focused on the MoD and the ARR. This second report looks across government at all the Afghan resettlement schemes that have operated since 2021. It provides transparency on the resettlement of eligible people to date, at a point where the schemes have been closed to new entrants but many people have yet to complete the resettlement process. It does not seek to examine and report on the overall value for money of the schemes.

7 This report is set out as follows:

Part One provides an overview of the background to the schemes, the process for resettling people in the UK, and the governance and programme management arrangements.

Part Two reports on the progress made by government departments in resettling people to date and outlines the work required to bring the resettlement schemes to completion.

Part Three sets out funding for the schemes, the costs incurred to date, and expected future costs.

8 The government also operates other resettlement routes, including the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) and the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which are separate from the Afghan schemes and not included in this report.

Key findings

The schemes’ set-up and evolution

9 The context and scale of the schemes changed following the fall of Kabul in 2021. From 2010, the UK offered the possibility of resettlement to certain groups of Afghan citizens. In 2021, reflecting concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and the potential risk to life, the government broadened its approach, establishing two new schemes that offered the possibility of resettlement to a wider range of people. At the point the first scheme was established the government anticipated that around 4,000 people would be eligible for resettlement. Following the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan, the number of people applying and being considered eligible has been considerably greater than envisaged. Numbers eligible for resettlement increased further because of the 2022 data breach and the government’s decision to establish the ARR (paragraphs 1.1 to 1.3 and 2.2, and Figure 2).

10 Multiple departments had to work together at pace in challenging circumstances when establishing the schemes, with the result that their design and delivery became complex and inefficient. The need to respond quickly to an operationally complex and high-pressure situation, and the decision to run two separate schemes across four departments without clear cross-government coordination, meant that the schemes were delivered in a way which was sub-optimal for efficiency and the outcomes for people. Stakeholders told us that this was understandable in the initial stages but that the “chaotic” arrangements went on for much longer than was necessary. Government officials said this was in part because the super-injunction restricted communication about the schemes. As at September 2025, officials were revising the strategic objectives for the programme, developing a programme plan and finalising governance arrangements. The departments involved have collected data on various stages and aspects of the resettlement process but there has not been a single, shared data system that provides an overview of performance and supports risk management and decision-making (paragraphs 1.29 to 1.30 and 2.29 to 2.30).

11 In December 2024, more than three years after the Taliban takeover, the government brought together ARR, ARAP and ACRS into a single programme, to improve delivery of the schemes and outcomes for resettled Afghan citizens. In May 2024, the government appointed a senior responsible owner (SRO) with cross-government responsibility for the schemes. The government announced the combined Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) in December 2024 and the accommodation element of the programme began operating in March 2025. Significant changes introduced under the ARP included establishing a single process for individuals once they arrive in the UK, rather than separate routes for the MoD-led ARAP and ARR, and the Home Office-led ACRS; introducing a limit of nine months in transitional accommodation; and improving the funding provided to local authorities to improve integration outcomes (paragraphs 1.31 to 1.32 and 1.35).

Progress to date

12 Between April 2021 and December 2025, 37,950 people arrived in the UK under the resettlement schemes, of which 54% were under 18 when they arrived. Of these 19,795 arrived through ARAP, 13,884 through ACRS, and 4,241 under the ARR. The largest annual number of arrivals was in 2021, when the Operation Pitting evacuation took place and officials recorded the arrival of 16,429 Afghan citizens in the UK through ARAP and ACRS. As at February 2026, the government estimated that it would need to resettle a further 8,632 to 9,741 Afghan citizens, taking the total number who could be resettled to an estimated 46,582 to 47,691 (paragraphs 2.3 and 2.9 and Figure 1).

13 By December 2025, 30,392 people were living in settled accommodation through the schemes. The government provides accommodation for Afghans arriving through the schemes. They are first housed in transitional accommodation and then move into settled accommodation. As at December 2025, of the 37,950 people who had arrived under the schemes, 4,004 (11%) were living in transitional accommodation, 26,225 (69%) in settled accommodation sourced by government and local authorities, 4,167 (11%) had secured their own housing in the private rental sector, and the accommodation type for 3,554 people (9%) was unknown. People who have arrived under the schemes are being accommodated in 347 out of 361 local authority areas and in every region of the UK, with the highest concentration being in the south-east of England (paragraphs 1.19, 2.10 to 2.12 and Figures 8 and 9).

14 As at November 2025, 29,655 people were waiting to hear the results of their eligibility assessment. Eligibility assessments are undertaken by different departments depending on the scheme. By the end of November 2025, the MoD had received 215,029 applications for those resettlement schemes which are application-based, of which it estimated 67,963 were duplicates, reapplications or other applications. By November 2025, there were 25,538 applications awaiting a decision. The MoD is aiming to complete its eligibility decisions by no later than March 2027. The FCDO has completed the eligibility assessments for the ACRS cohorts for which it is responsible, but by November 2025 the Home Office had 4,117 eligibility assessments to complete (paragraphs 2.6 to 2.8 and Figures 4 and 7).

15 The government will need to overcome challenges to deliver on its planned timetable for completing the ARP and has not yet put in place all the appropriate programme arrangements. The government aims to have brought all eligible Afghan citizens to the UK by March 2029, and to have moved those citizens out of transitional accommodation by December 2029. As at September 2025, the delivery confidence for the programme was Amber / Red meaning delivery confidence was in doubt with urgent intervention required. Significant risks included the following: insufficient resource for case handling; the deportation of potentially eligible Afghan citizens from Pakistan to Afghanistan; and a lack of good data on the pipeline of people requiring resettlement and their needs, together with a lack of appropriate and affordable property, resulting in greater than anticipated levels of homelessness. The MoD told us that, at the time of this report, additional caseworker support had been secured. The government still needs to set key performance indicators for the programme, develop a single source of management information, and finalise its programme plan (paragraphs 2.27 to 2.30).

The costs of the schemes

16 The government anticipates spending a total of £5.7 billion on the schemes between 2021-22 and 2032-33. Of this, the most significant costs are expected to be: the provision of transitional accommodation (£1.6 billion); integration costs (£1.3 billion); support before arriving in the UK (£1.2 billion); and settled accommodation (£0.8 billion). Between April 2021 and December 2025, the government spent £3.1 billion on the schemes. Therefore, although the schemes have closed to new applicants, a significant proportion of the costs have not yet been incurred. The 2025 Spending Review process confirmed funding from 1 April 2025 of £2.54 billion RDEL (Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, which is day-to-day resource and administration spending) to 31 March 2029, and £0.9 billion CDEL (Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit, or capital spending) to 31 March 2030 (paragraphs 3.3, 3.11 and Figures 12 and 13).

Concluding remarks

17 Between 2021 and 2025 the government resettled around 38,000 Afghan citizens in the UK, including many people who worked with British forces during the UK’s military presence in Afghanistan. The government closed its Afghan schemes in 2025 but still expects to resettle around 9,000 more people who were already in the resettlement system, by 2029.

18 Departments worked together to respond to a complex and high-pressure situation, taking on responsibilities for different groups of people and for the various stages of the resettlement process. However, the response lacked overall clear governance, shared information and performance measurement, producing inefficiency which is likely to have increased costs and worsened outcomes for resettled people, compared with taking a more coordinated and planned approach earlier.

19 In 2024, the government recognised the need for a more effective delivery model and developed the ARP to combine the previously separate schemes. While progress has been made, important elements of effective programme management for the ARP are not yet in place. These will be vital to how government manages remaining risks, including processing outstanding cases, managing the flow of individuals into the UK and into settled accommodation, and minimising the risk of people becoming homeless.

Recommendations

20 In completing the delivery of the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP), government should focus on:

a urgently finishing establishing the key elements of effective programme management, including a programme plan, key performance indicators and a single source of cross-departmental management information;

b undertaking scenario analysis to understand the potential barriers to completing the relocation of all eligible people to the UK and moving them out of transitional accommodation by December 2029, and how these can be overcome;

c monitoring the effect of the 2025 policy changes under the ARP, particularly the introduction of a nine-month limit for transitional accommodation;

d using the results of current pilot approaches, in which local authorities and community organisations play a more prominent role from earlier in the resettlement process, to identify innovative approaches and spread good practice; and

e identifying measures of successful integration for Afghan resettled people and using these to assess outcomes.

21 The government should consider how it can feed the lessons from its experience on the Afghan schemes into the design and operation of future resettlement schemes, and how it can retain the expertise it has built up.

Part One

Introduction

The UK government’s approach to resettling Afghan citizens

1.1 Between October 2001 and late August 2021, the UK had a military presence in Afghanistan. During this 20-year period, the UK government employed local Afghan citizens. This work sometimes came with significant risk to those Afghan citizens and their families, who feared reprisals from the Taliban. From 2010, the UK offered the possibility of resettlement to certain groups of Afghan citizens (Figure 2).

1.2 Before 2021 the resettlement opportunities were focused solely on people who worked with or for the UK government. In 2021, the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated and the government broadened its resettlement approach, launching the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) in spring 2021 and announcing the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) which began operating from January 2022. In August 2021, as the Taliban captured Kabul, the government started to evacuate British nationals and eligible Afghan citizens to the UK. Operation Pitting ran from 13 to 28 August 2021, evacuating 15,000 people. The Afghan citizens in this group who were not eligible for resettlement under the ARAP scheme were assessed under ACRS.

1.3 In autumn 2023, after discovering a significant data breach which had occurred in February 2022, the government began work to establish a further Afghan resettlement scheme, the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) for those affected by the data breach who were not eligible under the existing schemes. The ARR was launched in April 2024, covered by a super-injunction in the High Court which prevented disclosure of the data breach and the existence of the ARR, until the super-injunction was lifted on 15 July 2025. We published a report on the ARR scheme on 3 September 2025.1

1.4 In December 2024, the government announced it was establishing the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) to bring together all existing Afghan resettlement and relocation schemes into a single pipeline. The accommodation element of the programme began operating in March 2025. In July 2025, the government closed the ARAP and ACRS schemes to new applications and referrals and ceased to issue new invitations for the ARR. It stated that it would continue to process existing applications and referrals received before the schemes closed. Figure 3 sets out a timeline of the main events relating to Afghan resettlement.

1.5 The government has previous experience in resettling people from other countries to the UK, in response to crises:

In 2014, the government set up the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement programme (SVPR), which it expanded in 2015.2

The Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme (VCRS) was launched in 2016 to resettle ‘at risk’ refugee children and their families from the Middle East and North Africa.

The SVPR and the VCRS closed to new arrivals in February 2021 and were superseded by the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS).

In March 2022, the government launched the Homes for Ukraine (HFU) scheme, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.3

Responsibilities for delivering the resettlement schemes

1.6 There are four central government departments which have a role in delivering the Afghan resettlement schemes: the Ministry of Defence (MoD); the Home Office; the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG); and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) (Figure 4). Local authorities are key partners in the resettlement schemes, working with central government to support resettled people while they are in transitional accommodation, source longer-term accommodation and help people integrate into communities. There is no statutory obligation for local authorities to take part in the schemes. Twelve Strategic Migration Partnerships (SMPs), funded by central government but led by local government, provide leadership and coordination on migration in the regions and nations of the UK. Officials told us that SMPs have a significant role in facilitating and enabling collaboration between government and local partners.

How the schemes work

1.7 The Afghan resettlement schemes have five main stages through which people pass to become resettled in the UK:

eligibility for the schemes;

application for entry clearance, or settlement if people are already in the UK;

(if relevant) relocation to the UK;

transitional (temporary) accommodation; and

settled accommodation, with support to integrate into UK society and the local community.

1.8 The primary differences between the schemes are their eligibility criteria and the organisation responsible for assessing people for eligibility. Since the accommodation element of the combined ARP began operating in March 2025, the support people receive once they are determined to be eligible, and have relocated to a ‘third country’ outside Afghanistan, is the same regardless of which scheme they arrived on. Previously there were some differences between the schemes in the provision of transitional accommodation. Figure 5 gives an overview of the current process.

Eligibility

ARAP

1.9 The ARAP scheme is for people who worked for or with the UK government in Afghanistan in ‘exposed or meaningful roles’. Until the scheme closed to new applicants in July 2025, a person applying initially completed an online application form which they sent to the Defence Afghan Relocations and Resettlement (DARR) team in the MoD. The DARR team then assessed their eligibility, referring details to other relevant government departments, if appropriate.

1.10 If the ‘principal applicant’ was eligible, they could add to their application:

immediate family members, meaning one partner and their children under 18; and

additional family members, included in a supplementary application, who were eligible if they were vulnerable and “exceptionally dependent” on their family, or if they were at a high risk of death or serious injury because of the principal applicant’s work with the UK government.

ACRS

1.11 For ACRS, people did not apply to the scheme but were referred to it, through three ‘pathways’ for different groups.

Pathway 1 was for people who had arrived in the UK under the Operation Pitting evacuation programme, as well as those who were told by the UK government that they would be evacuated but were unable to board flights at the time of the evacuation.

Pathway 2 covered vulnerable refugees who had fled from Afghanistan and who were referred to the programme by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Pathway 3 was designed to offer resettlement to people at risk who had supported the UK and international community effort in Afghanistan, as well as those who were particularly vulnerable, such as women and girls at risk, and members of minority groups. For this pathway, the government considered people from three groups: British Council contractors; GardaWorld contractors who provided security for the British Embassy in Kabul; and Afghan alumni of the Chevening Scholarship Programme.

1.12 Like ARAP, ACRS also allowed family members to be added to the referral, including a spouse or partner and dependent children under 18, plus some additional family members in “exceptional” circumstances.

1.13 ACRS is led by the Home Office, which determines eligibility for Pathway 1. The UNHCR assesses people for eligibility for Pathway 2. The FCDO assesses eligibility for three ACRS cohorts under Pathway 3.

ARR

1.14 The ARR is for those whose personal information was included in the February 2022 data breach, who were at the highest risk as a result of the breach and not eligible for other schemes. People did not apply but were invited on to the scheme by the MoD. People with an invitation could apply to bring their spouse or partner, dependent children under 18 and, in the same way as for ARAP and ACRS, additional family members in ‘exceptional’ circumstances. The MoD said that some individuals originally found eligible under ARR had been found ARAP-eligible when their case had been reviewed.

Entry clearance or settlement application

1.15 For all schemes, once an eligibility decision has been made, the Home Office is responsible for other checks which are part of the resettlement process, including biometric identification, evidence of identification and nationality, and ‘suitability’ checks. The Home Office is also responsible for issuing visas to enable Afghans to enter the UK.

1.16 While some resettled people were brought directly to the UK under Operation Pitting, most applicants and their families go through the eligibility stage while still in Afghanistan. People then travel to ‘third countries’ outside Afghanistan, such as Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, where they stay until their applications for entry clearance are complete, UK visas and travel documents are issued, and they can be relocated to the UK.

1.17 The government may provide support for eligible people in third countries while their applications are being processed, including accommodating them in hotels and guesthouses. Since 2022 for ACRS, and 2025 for ARAP and ARR, this support has been delivered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which is part of the United Nations system. The support provided, which is funded by the Home Office and the MoD, can include temporary accommodation and meeting ‘basic daily needs’, health assessments, facilitating UK visa applications, and pre-departure orientation sessions.

Relocation to the UK

1.18 Once people in third countries have their UK visas, they are relocated to the UK on flights, primarily from Pakistan, but also from other third countries such as Iran and Turkey. The IOM is responsible for organising charter and commercial flight bookings, in coordination with the MoD and the Home Office.

Transitional accommodation in the UK

1.19 People arriving in the UK have had different types of initial accommodation – known as transitional accommodation – depending on when they arrived and whether they were on the ARAP or ACRS schemes. The Operation Pitting evacuation in August 2021 meant that short-term accommodation needed to be quickly identified for thousands of people, the majority of whom were housed in hotels known as ‘bridging hotels’. In December 2022, when many thousands of people were still living in these hotels, the then Minister for Veterans’ Affairs announced that the use of bridging hotels would end. The government ended all 55 bridging hotel contracts by the end of August 2023. However, the government has continued to use hotels to house some Afghan resettled people, as discussed in Part Two of this report.4

1.20 For ARAP, the MoD has provided transitional accommodation from 2023 onwards, at repurposed training sites, known as ‘Reception, Staging and Onwards Movement’ sites, and in service family accommodation. The development of this provision is also discussed in Part Two.

1.21 While people are staying in transitional accommodation, they are supported by central government and local authority officials in various ways.

For people in hotels and other transitional accommodation such as serviced apartments, Home Office liaison officers act as the Home Office’s single point of contact for resettled people, assessing their needs soon after arrival and providing support, such as referring people to relevant authorities or services.

Military personnel and contractors provide support to people in transitional accommodation on the Defence estate.

Local authorities provide services to support people while they are in transitional accommodation and to prepare them to move on to settled accommodation.

Settled accommodation

1.22 From 1 March 2025, under the combined ARP, the provision of transitional accommodation to new arrivals has been limited to a maximum of nine months (see paragraph 1.35). Previously, people typically remained in transitional accommodation until settled accommodation had been identified.

1.23 People find settled accommodation through two main routes, which run in parallel.

Government allocation, where the Home Office’s accommodation matching team identifies suitable properties by working with local authorities and community groups. People receive a single offer of housing, based on their household requirements such as family size, and not on preferences such as location. They have no choice of properties. If they refuse the offer they will be given notice to quit their transitional accommodation and are then expected to find their own onward accommodation. The housing offered, as discussed in Part Two of this report, can be social housing (including Local Authority Housing Fund homes), MoD service family accommodation, or private sector rentals.

The ‘Find Your Own’ pathway, where people arrange to rent a home from a private landlord. Local authority caseworkers support people to search for and secure properties, using sources such as online property rental platforms.

1.24 The size of Afghan families is a key challenge in finding appropriate housing. In September 2024 the MoD reported internally that households resettled under the Afghan schemes had on average 5.5 members, compared to an average of 3.84 people per household in the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), for refugees from other countries. More than 10% of resettled Afghan families included eight or more people. The MoD said that the average number of people in a family varied significantly and had changed over time. Measures such as intensive case working for larger families and splitting multigenerational families had been introduced to mitigate the housing challenges.

1.25 People who do not find settled accommodation through government allocation or the ‘Find Your Own’ route can present themselves to a local authority as homeless, either in the same location as their transitional accommodation or elsewhere in the UK. The government aims to ensure that less than 10% of people arriving from Afghanistan on the schemes will end up entering the homelessness system. Local authorities have a legal duty to accept an application from anyone who is eligible for support and threatened with homelessness (meaning they are likely to be homeless within 56 days), to help prevent them from becoming homeless. Support can include a local authority taking reasonable steps to help the applicant either remain in their existing accommodation or secure alternative accommodation.

New model for accommodation provision

1.26 In April 2025, the MoD launched a pilot project in the Yorkshire and Humber region, giving responsibility for both transitional and settled accommodation to Migration Yorkshire, the SMP for the region. Migration Yorkshire receives funding to procure and manage transitional accommodation sites as part of an end-to-end process, instead of the MoD and the Home Office doing this. Migration Yorkshire delivers a regional model with enhanced support for individuals, and also works with local authorities to find suitable settled housing in the region. Initial performance reporting shows that people moved from transitional to settled accommodation more quickly under this model, leading to reduced costs. While the pilot has not yet been formally evaluated, both the MoD and local authorities told us that the model also simplifies case working and would improve long-term integration.

Integration and long-term settlement

1.27 Once people move to settled accommodation, local authorities provide support for them to integrate into their communities, secure employment and address other needs. Local authorities are funded to provide these services through a per-person tariff described in Part Three of this report.

1.28 Resettled people and their family members can stay in the UK long-term under the Afghan resettlement schemes. They are granted ‘indefinite leave to remain’ (ILR), with permission to work and access education, healthcare, benefits and other public services. ILR allows people to apply for naturalisation as a British citizen after holding it for 12 months.

The development of governance responsibilities and programme management arrangements for the schemes

Governance responsibilities

1.29 The need to respond to a complex and high-pressure situation, and the decision to deliver resettlement activity through two separate schemes across four departments meant that there was some duplication and inefficiency in the schemes’ design and delivery. Priorities between departments were also not always aligned. Officials told us how the approach felt bureaucratic, sub-optimal and inefficient at times and did not deliver a cross-government approach to the solutions needed. For example, the government’s decision to close the bridging hotels increased the risk of homelessness, a priority for MHCLG. Officials recognised that taking a programmatic, cross-government approach across departments would enable them to better respond to the different needs of the different cohorts across the schemes and consider the different circumstances and capacity of regions. However, the government continued to operate two separate cohorts of Afghan citizens who had arrived in the UK via the MoD-led ARAP and ARR, and the Home Office-led ACRS.

1.30 Stakeholders told us that it was understandable that the initial response to the crisis was chaotic, but that this approach continued much longer than was necessary. Officials emphasised that the super-injunction and the need to comply with the restrictions that it imposed had exacerbated the difficulties of working together. They told us that their priority was to deal with complex and high-pressure situations, which meant that they did not prioritise developing programme arrangements.

The establishment of the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP)

1.31 In May 2024, recognising that the schemes would benefit from greater cross-government co-ordination, the Cabinet Office appointed a senior responsible owner (SRO) who is based in the MoD but reported to the Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office. During 2024, the SRO worked with the departments to develop the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP), combining the schemes into a single programme. The SRO told us that he consulted senior officials with experience of the government’s other resettlement schemes.

1.32 The government’s business case for the ARP acknowledged the need to improve the value for money of the schemes and integration outcomes. The business case estimated that the programme would achieve a net present social value of between £4.3 billion and £5.1 billion compared with the previous arrangements. The Defence Secretary announced the programme on 18 December 2024 and the accommodation element of the programme began operating from 1 March 2025.

1.33 The main decision-making body for the ARP is the cross-government Afghan Resettlement Programme Board (the Board), which began operating in January 2025. It includes MoD, Home Office, FCDO and MHCLG officials and representatives from HM Treasury and Cabinet Office. The Board sits below and feeds into the Small Ministerial Group on Afghan Resettlement, which includes ministers from the MoD, Home Office, MHCLG, FCDO and HM Treasury.

1.34 The business case noted that significant additional funding had been required to support local authorities to move individuals into settled accommodation, but that this had led to an inefficient and complex funding system. The government said it was seeking to address challenges including:

a complicated accommodation pipeline, with the type of accommodation offered depending on the scheme people arrived through;

people having prolonged stays in transitional accommodation, bringing high costs for central government and hindering integration outcomes;

a lack of incentives for people to “take steps towards self-sufficiency” while waiting for settled accommodation; and

a highly complex local authority funding system, which risked inefficiency through potential duplication.

1.35 Significant changes that the government introduced under the ARP included:

establishing a single process for individuals once they were in the UK;

introducing a limit of nine months in transitional accommodation, rather than providing accommodation until people found settled housing;

supporting people to find accommodation in the private rental sector, through intensive case working led by local authorities; and

simplifying the funding for local authorities’ work to prioritise integration outcomes.

1 Comptroller and Auditor General, The Afghanistan Response Route, Session 2024-25, HC 1288, National Audit Office, September 2025.

2 Comptroller and Auditor General, The Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme, Session 2016-17, HC 626, National Audit Office, September 2016.

3 Comptroller and Auditor General, Investigation into the Homes for Ukraine scheme, Session 2022-23, HC 1863, National Audit Office, October 2023.

4 We have previously reported on the government’s use of hotels to house people seeking asylum in the UK: Comptroller and Auditor General, Investigation into asylum accommodation, Session 2023-24, HC 635, National Audit Office, March 2024

Part Two

Progress to date

2.1 This part of the report examines government departments’ progress to date and describes the work still required to complete the delivery of the resettlement schemes.

2.2 The number of Afghan citizens requiring resettlement has been greater than the government anticipated when it set up the schemes. In early 2021, the government expected it would need to resettle around 4,000 people, but expected numbers increased rapidly after the Taliban takeover in the summer of 2021, and the discovery of the data breach in August 2023.

Arrivals and numbers resettled in the UK to date

2.3 Between April 2021 and December 2025, 37,950 people had been resettled in the UK via the schemes, of which 20,629 (54%) were under 18 when they arrived. The largest number arrived in 2021, when 16,429 Afghans resettled in the UK (Figure 6). Arrival numbers in subsequent years have fluctuated according to various factors, including:

officials’ capacity to process the volume of applications and to get ‘eligible persons’ (EPs), which includes family members, through the various stages of the resettlement process; and

UK issues, such as a lack of available and suitable accommodation causing delays in the relocation process.

2.4 At the end of November 2025, a total of 5,350 people were located in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran or other countries outside the UK, having been assessed as meeting the criteria for one of the resettlement schemes.

2.5 The media has reported that some Afghan citizens spend up to two years in a third country waiting for the Home Office to process visa applications and conduct security checks, only to be deported back to Afghanistan when they fail checks, or when their visas expire before checks are completed. From September 2025, this became a significant issue as the government of Pakistan no longer accepts visa extensions from Afghan migrants. Instead, to obtain a valid visa, Afghan citizens must leave Pakistan and return to Afghanistan to reapply for a visa. The Home Office told us that only a small proportion of cases experience long delays and these are usually associated with additional security checks required for national security.

Application numbers and eligibility assessments

2.6 We analysed data from the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) internal case management system, which showed that by the end of November 2025, it had received 215,029 applications for those resettlement schemes which are application-based (Figure 7). The MoD estimates that 67,963 of these applications are duplicates, reapplications or other erroneous applications, which it is reviewing. Work is ongoing to cleanse the data, so these figures should be considered estimates and may be subject to change. Data show that the historical acceptance rate for Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) principal applicants has been around 4.6%. The MoD told us that the majority of eligible Afghan citizens made their applications early on and the acceptance rate is now much lower.

2.7 The MoD still needs to complete eligibility assessments for an estimated 25,538 applications, including first-time applications and reapplications. The MoD told us that applications typically do not include all of the information needed and that there is a lot of interaction with the applicant, other government departments and third parties to obtain the necessary evidence. The MoD plans to complete its eligibility casework by March 2027. The MoD said caseworker numbers were affecting its ability to make decisions at the rate required but that, at the time of this report, additional caseworker support had been secured.

2.8 For the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has completed eligibility assessments for its Pathway 3 cohorts, but by November 2025 the Home Office had 4,117 eligibility decisions to make for people who applied for the ACRS Separated Families Pathway. This pathway was for people who were separated from family members during Operation Pitting. People evacuated from Afghanistan on ACRS Pathway 1 were eligible to make a referral for their family members to relocate to the UK. Home Office data indicate that acceptance rates for this pathway were around 20% by November 2025. This means that, in total across the schemes, 29,655 people awaited the results of their eligibility assessment, as at the end of November 2025.

2.9 When the government closed the schemes in July 2025, it committed to process all applications received before 1 July and to honour all existing resettlement offers. The government estimated in February 2026 that it could need to resettle a total of 46,582 to 47,691 people in the UK by December 2029. This includes the 37,950 people who arrived in the UK by 31 December 2025, and between 8,632 and 9,741 more who are still in the process, comprising:

6,584 – 7,221 on ARAP;

884 on ACRS;

685 on the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR); and

509 – 981 further applications deemed non-progressive, mainly consisting of people who are eligible but have not responded to the government’s attempts to contact them.

Resettlement in the UK by region and local authority

2.10 People who have arrived under the Afghan resettlement schemes have been accommodated in 347 out of 361 local authorities (Figure 8), including local authorities in every region of the UK. The highest numbers have been in the south-east of England and London: of the total 37,950 who had come to the UK by 31 December 2025, 6,150 (16%) were being accommodated in the south-east region and 3,728 (10%) in London.

2.11 The location of 6,929 people (18% of those who have arrived in the UK by 31 December 2025) is unknown. This includes people who arranged their own accommodation immediately on arrival or who left hotels without providing a forwarding address.

Resettlement by type of accommodation

2.12 Figure 9 shows how many people are in each type of accommodation and how this has changed over time. Of the 37,950 people who had come to the UK under the schemes by 31 December 2025, 30,392 (80%) were in settled accommodation. Of these, 26,225 (69%) were in housing sourced by government and local authorities and 4,167 (11%) had found their own accommodation in the private rental sector. A further 4,004 (11%) were in transitional accommodation, and the accommodation type for 3,554 people (9%) was unknown.

Transitional accommodation

2.13 The government has used a combination of hotels, serviced accommodation and Defence estate sites to provide transitional accommodation.

Hotels and serviced accommodation

2.14 The number of people staying in hotels and serviced accommodation has reduced over time, from around 12,000 in January 2022 to 1,332 at the end of November 2025.

2.15 Before it introduced the accommodation element of the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) on 1 March 2025, the government did not hold detailed information on how long people spend in transitional accommodation, but it has publicly reported estimates of this. The then Minister for Veterans’ Affairs reported to Parliament in March 2023 that around half of the approximately 8,000 Afghans in hotels had been there for over a year. In September 2023 the government reported that many families had been living in bridging hotels for around two years. The limit of nine months for transitional accommodation has been in place since 1 March 2025, which means that the first cohort under this policy reached this limit on 1 December 2025.

Defence estate sites

2.16 In autumn 2023, the then Defence Secretary agreed to provide additional transitional accommodation for those on the Afghan resettlement schemes on the Defence estate, following the decision to close Home Office bridging hotels and the expected increase in arrivals due to the discovery of the data breach. This was intended to be a temporary solution, and the government announced in December 2024 that it would reduce the use of the Defence estate for this purpose. The use of Defence estate sites peaked in November 2024, when around 2,800 people were accommodated over 16 sites, but this had reduced to 423 people over six sites by November 2025. The MoD told us that it plans to return all Defence estate transitional accommodation sites to military use by March 2026.

Settled accommodation sourced by government and local authorities

2.17 Housing sourced by government and local authorities has consistently made up a significant proportion of settled accommodation for people on the Afghan resettlement schemes. This is a mixture of social housing, Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) homes, MoD service family accommodation and private sector rentals. Of the total 30,392 people reported as being in settled accommodation at 31 December 2025, 26,225 (86%) were in housing sourced by government and local authorities.

Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF)

2.18 The Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) has provided funding to local authorities in England to increase their available stock of housing and better equip them to respond to the challenge of homelessness in their localities. These are properties which local authorities may use to obtain temporary accommodation for homeless people or to provide affordable accommodation to Afghan families for at least three years, after which the homes may become part of the general local authority housing stock. Between April 2024 and July 2025, local authorities procured 1,627 homes using the LAHF (see paragraph 3.10). MHCLG expects that local authorities will procure a further 438 homes by March 2026. MHCLG announced a further £950 million of LAHF funding on 19 November 2025, which will be available to local authorities from 2026-27 to 2029-30. MHCLG estimates that around a quarter of this funding will be used to provide settled accommodation for resettled Afghan households. The government does not publish data on how many resettled Afghan people are in LAHF-funded housing.

Defence estate homes

2.19 Government can also make use of MoD service family accommodation (SFA) on the Defence estate for suitable offers of settled accommodation for Afghan families. In October 2021, the government agreed to provide 550 SFA properties, increasing this to 700 following the discovery of the data breach in 2023. By the end of November 2025, 3,532 people were living in SFA properties.

Settled accommodation in the private rental sector

2.20 In addition to local authorities finding tenancies in the private rental sector, people on the Afghan resettlement schemes can also find their own tenancies. Since June 2023, this latter type of private rental sector housing has made up between 13% and 17% of settled accommodation. At 31 December 2025, 4,167 people (14% of those in settled accommodation) were in this type of housing. When the government established the ARP, it aimed to increase the proportion of people who moved into this type of private rental sector housing to 40%, by expanding access and take-up of the ‘Find Your Own’ pathway. The government recognised at the time that this would be a substantial challenge, requiring councils to be appropriately funded to deliver intensive case working and households to be dispersed into affordable areas. However, in February 2025, shortly before the programme began operating in March, the Board had been told that meeting 40% would be unlikely, and a greater proportion of people could present as homeless. By December 2025, government internal reporting showed that 22% of people on the first ARP cohort, who reached the nine-month limit for transitional accommodation on 1 December, had successfully found their own settled accommodation. It also showed that 66% of this cohort was in housing sourced by government and local authorities, 7% were still in transitional accommodation, and 5% had entered the homelessness system.

2.21 The MoD Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) asked an existing contractor, Mears, to find 508 rental properties for resettled ARAP households in 2023 and 2024. The DIO told us in November 2025 that 260 properties were occupied or due to be occupied, and that Mears had performed well in sourcing properties but that it was not straightforward to match the available properties to households. From April 2025, the MoD contracted Mears to provide case-working support for families housed on the Defence estate to find accommodation in the private rental sector on the ‘Find Your Own’ pathway.

2.22 Officials told us about the considerable challenge of sourcing appropriate, affordable accommodation for larger Afghan families and those who have complex needs such as disabilities. Several local authorities raised concerns with us about larger families in Mears-sourced properties and service family accommodation. The government’s financial support for these tenancies is limited to three years and there was a risk that larger families would not be able to find affordable alternatives after this, local authorities said.

Communities for Afghans (CfA) scheme

2.23 In March 2024, the government set up the Communities for Afghans (CfA) scheme to use local community sponsor groups to identify suitable accommodation for resettled Afghans and help them integrate into their new communities. However, MHCLG told us that, as CfA properties were only considered for families who could not be housed in LAHF, SFA or Mears properties, there was often a mismatch between the size of the properties identified by CfA sponsor groups and the size of households needing accommodation. The initial pilot (phase one) began on 14 March 2024, with a target to resettle 100 families by October 2024, but only 11 properties had been secured by this time. As at October 2025, MHCLG reported that 29 Afghan households had moved into CfA settled accommodation. Phase two began on 1 October 2025, with an updated process which aims to provide a better match between households’ needs and the ability of the sponsor groups to meet those needs. The scheme aims to resettle a further 500 Afghan households by March 2031.

Integration support

2.24 The Home Office expects local authorities to develop bespoke plans to support the integration of Afghan citizens into their areas. Local authorities told us that a lack of information on those arriving limited their ability to proactively plan and meet the needs of those arriving. They have developed their own approaches to engaging with people on arrival and adapting the support they offer accordingly. Several local authorities commented that recent arrivals more often have low literacy and skill levels than earlier cohorts, which means they have needed to offer more adult training and employment support.

2.25 Recent academic research has investigated the resettlement schemes and their outcomes in terms of Afghan citizens’ experiences and the challenges they face in areas such as housing, employment, education, health and wellbeing.5 Findings include the following:

Resettled Afghans are highly diverse in terms of education, employment histories and English language proficiency. Around 50% report limited or no ability to read or write in English, although this overall rate is highly gendered. Nearly two-thirds of resettled Afghan men reported reading and writing well in English compared with one-third of resettled Afghan women.

Employment status varies significantly by age and gender. Men between 25 and 44 are the most likely to be in employment. Some highly educated professionals secure good employment opportunities, but others find themselves working in lower-skilled jobs.

Many Afghans feel socially isolated following displacement: 70% had made only few or no new acquaintances in their locality. Isolation can be exacerbated by inappropriate housing placements in rural, isolated areas.

2.26 The senior responsible owner (SRO) for the ARP told us that the primary focus of the resettlement schemes to date has been on relocation. He now wants to focus on integration outcomes as an end goal. Several local authorities told us that integration of Afghans while they are in transitional accommodation is challenging when the local authority’s objective is to move them on to settled accommodation, often in other parts of the country. The new regionally-led pilot model (see paragraph 1.26) could help to address this.

The future of the schemes

2.27 The government aims to have completed all eligibility decisions by March 2027, to have brought all eligible Afghan citizens to the UK by March 2029, and to have moved those people out of transitional accommodation by December 2029. The MoD told us that the end date forecast and underpinning assumptions would be subject to regular review and could change based on a variety of factors, including the flow of people to the UK and global context in which this takes place. Milestones could change throughout the life of the programme. Ministers were seeking to conclude the programme by the end of the current Parliament, the MoD said.

2.28 As at September 2025, the SRO had rated the delivery confidence of the ARP overall as Amber / Red meaning delivery confidence was in doubt with urgent intervention required. The most significant risks to the programme were:

insufficient eligibility workforce resources affecting case handling. The MoD said that, at the time of this report, additional caseworker support had been secured;

insufficient tools, processes, policy and procedure within eligibility to operate effectively. At the time of this report, the MoD said that additional tools and procedures had been put in place;

the government of Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan, which has the potential to result in large-scale deportations of Afghan citizens back to Afghanistan;

the lack of a decision on accountability for specific areas of resettlement activity between departments; and

lack of good data on the pipeline of people requiring resettlement, and their needs, together with a lack of appropriate and affordable properties, resulting in greater-than-anticipated levels of homelessness.

2.29 Officials told us that the need to maintain secrecy regarding the super-injunction and the establishment of the ARR had affected their ability to establish a programmatic approach to managing the schemes as early as they would have liked. As at September 2025, officials were revising the strategic objectives for the programme, developing a programme plan and finalising governance arrangements.

2.30 The government has not yet set any key performance indicators for the schemes or for the ARP. The MoD, the Home Office, FCDO, and MHCLG have collected data on various stages and aspects of the resettlement process, but there has not been a single, shared data system that provides an overview of performance and supports risk management and decision-making. Officials told us that building such a system which could have been used across multiple departments, locations and security levels, at pace, in the early stages of the resettlement programmes, would be likely to have been unachievable. Officials are now developing a single version of management information and intend to report on measures including:

numbers of eligible people and arrivals, their geographical dispersal and demographics;

numbers of individuals and households at different stages of the resettlement process, including length of time in transitional accommodation and flow into different types of settled accommodation; and

homelessness outcomes.

5 Oliver, C., Ryan, L., Cara, O., López, M.E., Raheal, M.M., Rasa, M. and Yilmaz Keles, J. (March 2026). What are the experiences and outcomes of Afghans resettled in England? Research report. London: University College London.

Part Three

Costs and funding

3.1 This part of the report examines the total government funding for the Afghan resettlement schemes, the costs incurred to date, and the expected future costs.

The schemes’ funding

3.2 The funding for the schemes reflects the delivery model, in that central government delivers some aspects of resettlement directly, and for other aspects government provides funding to others, primarily local authorities, to deliver resettlement services. Between 2021-22 and 2029-30, total central government funding for Afghan resettlement is £5 billion (Figure 10). Local authorities and others delivering resettlement services can claim part of this funding from central government to meet their costs (Figure 11).

Central government funding

3.3 Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2025, funding for Afghan resettlement comprised £2.36 billion in total. The 2025 Spending Review process confirmed funding from 1 April 2025 for Afghan resettlement of £2.54 billion up to 31 March 2029 for RDEL (Resource Departmental Expenditure Limits, which is day-to-day resource and administration spending), and of £0.9 billion for CDEL (Capital Departmental Expenditure Limits, or capital spending) up to 31 March 2030.

Funding available to local authorities

3.4 Central government provides funding to local authorities to help meet the costs of resetting individuals on the schemes, which include providing suitable settled housing and services to support integration. This is an important feature of the Afghan resettlement schemes because there is no statutory obligation for local authorities to take part.

Integration support funding

3.5 The Home Office provides funding to local authorities to support the integration of each resettled person for whom they provide accommodation. Over three years, local authorities receive funding of £24,110 for each person who is resettled. Local authorities can allocate these payments as they see fit, to meet resettled people’s needs. Services can include advice and support and English language classes. There is a separate tariff structure for individuals who are resettled on the Communities for Afghans scheme, which we set out in Figure 11.

3.6 Local authorities also receive funding to ensure school places are available for resettled children: £5,130 for children aged five to 18, and £2,965 for children aged three to four.

3.7 The Home Office, in partnership with other departments, has revised the tariffs over time to reduce costs and simplify the funding streams. The Home Office told us it aimed to reduce complexity for local authorities, improve clarity on entitlements and minimise administrative burden, by replacing multiple overlapping grant schemes with a single tariff-based model.

3.8 One of the key changes to funding arrangements is that from 1 March 2025, under the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP), local authorities can claim tariff funding from the day of an individual’s arrival into transitional accommodation in the UK; previously, there was separate wraparound funding available for this, at £28 per person per day. We heard from local authorities and Strategic Migration Partnerships that this change could add complexity to the process because, if people moved between local authorities when leaving transitional accommodation, the local authorities had to negotiate to transfer the remaining tariff funding.

3.9 We also heard concerns from local authorities about delays in payments since the launch of the ARP. The Home Office told us it aims to pay local authorities’ tariff claims within 30 days, but payments taking longer than this could be for multiple reasons including incorrect or incomplete claims.

Local Authority Housing Fund

3.10 Since December 2022, the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) has provided £2.2 billion of funding through the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF)6 to support local authorities to obtain temporary accommodation for homeless people or to provide affordable accommodation to resettled Afghan families. MHCLG announced the fourth ‘round’ of this funding on 19 November 2025, for £950 million between 2026-27 and 2029-30. LAHF funding is a capital grant which local authorities in England can use to expand their housing stock, by expanding existing housing delivery programmes, bringing empty or dilapidated properties back into use or by purchasing properties on the open market. Up to 31 December 2025, MHCLG spent around a quarter (27%) of LAHF funding on settled accommodation for resettled Afghan households and expects to spend a similar proportion through the fourth round of funding.

Actual and future costs

3.11 In total, the government anticipates that it will spend £5.7 billion on the Afghan resettlement schemes between 2021-22 and 2032-33. Although the schemes have closed to new applications and referrals, a significant proportion (46%) of the costs has not yet been incurred. By 31 December 2025, government had spent £3.1 billion and estimated spending a further £2.6 billion by 31 March 2033. The government expects that costs will rise until 2026-27 and then drop significantly after 2029-30, when all eligible people have moved out of transitional accommodation and become responsible for meeting their accommodation costs. Integration support costs will continue for three years after people arrive in the UK. Figure 12 sets out the actual costs and estimated spending on Afghan resettlement over time.

3.12 In July 2025 as part of its Spending Review bid, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) estimated that the total cost to the government per resettled individual was £128,000. In October 2025, we reviewed the basis of this estimate as part of auditing the MoD’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2024-25. We found that it was based on actual costs incurred in 2023-24, forecast costs from 2024-25, and the total number of people which the government expects to relocate between 2025-26 and 2028-29. The estimate does not consider costs before 2023-24 nor the number of individuals resettled between 2021-22 and 2024-25.

Costs on each stage of resettlement

3.13 We have analysed departmental financial information to estimate the costs incurred and future costs for each stage of the resettlement process. Figure 13 sets out our analysis of the government’s actual and estimated future costs related to Afghan resettlement, as at 31 December 2025.

6 The first round of LAHF funding, of £500 million, could also be used to provide housing for Ukrainian resettled families.

Appendix One

Our audit approach

Our scope

1 This investigation is an examination of the Afghan resettlement schemes for which the government is responsible. It follows the short report we published in September 2025 which focused solely on the Ministry of Defence and the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) scheme. Our scope was to provide an overview of all the government’s Afghan resettlement schemes, covering:

the background to the schemes, the process for resettling Afghan citizens in the UK, and the governance and programme management arrangements in place, as exercised by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Home Office and the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG);

the progress made in resettling Afghan citizens to date, including the current status of the ‘pipeline’ of people at different stages of the process (Afghan citizens’ application and assessment, relocation to the UK, transitional accommodation and settled accommodation with associated support for their integration into UK society), and the work required to bring the resettlement schemes to completion; and

funding for the schemes, the costs incurred to date, and expected future costs.

2 This report seeks to provide transparency on the resettlement of eligible people to date, at a point where the schemes have closed to new entrants, but many people have yet to complete the resettlement process. It does not seek to examine and report on the overall value for money of the schemes.

Our evidence base

3 Our findings are based on our review and analysis of evidence we collected between September 2025 and February 2026. We drew on a range of evidence sources including interviews, document review, and data and financial analysis. Our work was also informed by our 2025 report about the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) scheme and our previous work on other resettlement schemes, including the Homes for Ukraine scheme and the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement programme.

Interviews

4 We undertook 40 interviews with 22 different organisations and held a roundtable discussion with a further five organisations. We used information from these interviews to build our understanding of the relevant topics and to inform further interview and document requests and follow-up questions. Interviewees were often identified by the organisations themselves and were selected based on the fit between their job role and expertise, and the focus of each interview.

5 We conducted around 20 semi-structured interviews with officials from the MoD, the FCDO, the Home Office and MHCLG. Interviewees were primarily from resettlement and relocation teams but also included staff with involvement in finance, policy or legal matters. The objective of the interviews was to understand the set-up, governance and management arrangements for the schemes, visa processing arrangements, case management systems used to administer the schemes, funding, data collection, and cost and performance monitoring, and to discuss the future of the schemes, including significant risks and forecast costs.

6 Several interviews took place in person, but most were conducted virtually using Microsoft Teams. We took a note of each interview.

7 We also interviewed a range of local authority officials responsible for Afghan resettlement in their areas. Our report scope, to provide an overview of the schemes, meant we chose not to issue a general ‘call for evidence’ to local authorities or to survey them, since this would have required significant effort from local authorities with only limited capacity for us to report on the results. Instead, we held individual discussions focusing on qualitative evidence. We interviewed representatives from 12 local authorities. Some local authority contacts were suggested to us by the MoD. We arranged further interviews with local authorities by discussing our work with the Local Government Association, SOLACE (the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers) and a group for London local authorities organised by the London Strategic Migration Partnership. The local authorities we met with were:

Aberdeen City Council;

Bracknell Forest Council;

Camden Council;

Charnwood Borough Council;

Ealing Council;

Gateshead Council;

Islington Council;

Newcastle City Council;

North Yorkshire Council;

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea;

South Ribble Borough Council; and

Vale of White Horse District Council.

8 The topics covered in interviews with local authorities included their role and involvement in the resettlement schemes, engagement and relationships with central government departments, funding, and challenges in resettling and integrating Afghan citizens into communities. We also met with representatives from the Local Government Association and from SOLACE, and we attended a meeting of the National Audit Office’s Local Government Reference Panel, to further understand the views of local authorities, and to try to ensure that our findings from the individual local authority interviews were broadly reflective of local authorities’ views.

9 We conducted a roundtable discussion with five voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations and used insights from these discussions to inform our interviews with officials, and to understand and report on the set-up and management of the schemes. The VCS organisations who attended were:

British Red Cross;

Gulab Sorkh Foundation;

International Rescue Committee;

Pickwell Foundation; and

Royal British Legion.

10 We interviewed Mears to understand its involvement in the resettlement schemes, and the International Organization for Migration to understand its role and work in supporting Afghan citizens applying to the UK government’s resettlement schemes.

11 We engaged with academics from University College London and London Metropolitan University who were researching the experiences of Afghan citizens in the UK, and their outcomes in terms of employment, income and housing. Our report reflects the findings of this research.

12 We visited the transitional accommodation site for the ‘pathfinder’ project run by Migration Yorkshire. During our visit, we were shown typical accommodation, attended briefing sessions for Afghan residents, and interviewed an Afghan family via an interpreter. We also discussed the operation of the pathfinder with staff from Migration Yorkshire, local authorities and the accommodation provider. We obtained documentation and performance data to support issues raised during our visit.

13 We discussed the schemes at a meeting of Strategic Migration Partnerships managers and reviewed follow-up information provided by some of the participants.

14 We contacted the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to invite them to discuss their involvement in the schemes, and interviewed representatives of the Scottish government.

Document review

15 We reviewed a wide range of published and unpublished departmental documents provided by the MoD, FCDO, the Home Office and MHCLG to assist with developing and deepening our understanding of the resettlement schemes and to secure supporting evidence for assertions made by officials in interviews. Documents reviewed included:

approvals for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS);

the business case for the Afghan Resettlement Programme;

equality impact assessments;

scheme guidance for applicants;

operational guidance for caseworkers;

documentation on governance and management of the schemes and the programme;

performance information on scheme processing, arrivals and homelessness;

terms of reference, minutes and papers of the programme board and other discussion forums;

departmental and programme risk registers;

funding instructions and Local Authority Housing Fund guidance for local authorities;

cost profiles and cost forecasts; and

internal lessons learned reports.

16 We also reviewed documents at higher classification, to inform our understanding of the resettlement schemes’ delivery. We have not used these documents directly as evidence for our report, but reviewing them helped to inform our findings from other sources.

Data analysis

17 We analysed a range of published and unpublished data for the Afghan resettlement schemes including:

data on applications, referrals and arrivals via the schemes;

data on the type of accommodation used to resettle Afghan citizens; and

data on the regions and nations of the UK where Afghan citizens are resettled.

Financial analysis

18 We performed analysis of financial information provided by the MoD, Home Office, MHCLG and FCDO to assess and present:

funding allocated to central government departments;

funding available to local authorities and other local delivery organisations to administer and manage the schemes;

costs incurred to date for Afghan resettlement schemes; and

estimated future costs for Afghan resettlement schemes.

19 We calculated the overall whole-life cost by combining reported costs to 31 December 2025 with departments’ estimation of future costs up to 31 March 2033.

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