Committee publication · Correspondence · 20 April 2026

Letter from the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Chair relating to Afghanistan Response Route, 2 April 2026

Inquiry: Afghanistan Response Route (ARR)

Summary

The Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary writes to the Public Accounts Committee providing a six-monthly progress report on the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) in response to the committee's Fifty-Fourth Report. As of March 2026, approximately 38,000 people have been relocated to the UK, with around 4,000 arriving under the Afghanistan Response Route. The MoD reports 68% average training completion for military personnel and 80% for civil servants on mandatory data protection, and commits to re-baselining overall programme costs once actual spending is confirmed.

Key findings

38,000 people relocated to UK under ARP as of March 2026; approximately 4,000 under the Afghanistan Response Route specifically
MoD data protection and information governance training completion rates: 68% for military personnel, 80% for civil servants, described as achieving target compliance levels
MoD has published first quarterly Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) data for programme transparency and accountability, with February 2026 performance statistics made publicly available
Department plans to re-baseline overall programme costs at end of financial year once actual spending is confirmed, with updated cost estimate to be provided to Parliament
Government objective remains to conclude the Afghan Resettlement Programme by end of Parliament

Tone

Procedural

Topics

defence-policypublic-financeimmigrationprogramme-management

Key actors

Jeremy Pocklington, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Ministry of Defence, Public Accounts Committee, National Audit Office, Home Office

Notable line

“… the Department has previously published overall cost estimates based on predicted numbers of Eligible Persons coming from Afghanistan to the UK.”

Key Quotes

“As of 28 February 2026, the average training completion rate across military personnel was 68%. The equivalent rate for civil servants was 80%.”
— Jeremy Pocklington · Responding to PAC Recommendation 3 on mandatory data protection training completion

“The G overnment's aim remains to conclude the ARP by the end of this Parliament.”
— Jeremy Pocklington · Overall programme objective

“… the number of people relocated to the UK stood at around 38,000. In total, around 4,000 people have arrived under the ARR.”
— Jeremy Pocklington · Reporting progress on Afghan resettlement numbers

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗