23 Acknowledged

Department unable to determine precise ARR scheme costs due to commingled accounts and super-injunction.

Conclusion
The Department is not able to determine exactly what it has spent on resettling people through the ARR scheme, because it did not separately identify the costs in its accounting system. The Department told us that it did this because reporting the costs separately would breach the super-injunction and because much of the activity for the secret 54 Q 35 55 Q 42 56 Q 39 57 Q 43 58 Letter from Ministry of Defence, 7 October 2025 59 Qq 40–41 15 scheme and the open ARR scheme was the same.60 Although the criteria for offering resettlement under the ARR and ARAP schemes are different, the resettlement offer was the same. It included: relocation to the UK; transitional accommodation for up to nine months; support to find a settled home; integration support; permission to stay in the UK permanently and to work; and access to education, healthcare, benefits and other public services.61
Government Response Summary
The government states that capturing costs for the ARR scheme separately would be disproportionately complex and resource intensive, and proposes an alternative approach for allocating costs.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government Acknowledged
5.2 The Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) and Afghan Relocations Assistance Policy (ARAP) offers are largely identical and utilise shared services (including for relocation, support and accommodation), differing only in qualifying criteria. While the department appreciates the importance of capturing costs relating to the data incident, to account for the ARR scheme separately would be disproportionately complex and resource intensive. The department instead proposes an alternative approach for costs incurred which will allow for a more accurate allocation of costs and meets reporting requirements, without introducing unnecessary complexity.
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age 0.5 yr
Report published 14 Nov 2025