Investigation into the Afghan resettlement schemes

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.

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.