The Home Office response to the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s report: Afghan resettlement schemes
Updated 1 March 2024
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October 2022 - April 2023
The Home Office thanks the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) for his report “An inspection of Afghan Resettlement Schemes”.
Work has been implemented and completed to take forward the recommendations in this report to ensure that relevant changes are made, and the recommendations are incorporated into the operational approach of the Department.
The Home Office is grateful for the recognition that equality impact assessments (EIAs) of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) are generally of good quality. The Home Office is pleased the report recognised engagement and communication with partners was good and all parties commented on the value of these relationships, which were constructive and focused on providing a joint response. The Home Office is also grateful for the recognition of the then hotel-based Home Office liaison officers with the success in the initiative of refining and capturing data.
The ICIBI identified several areas for improvement and made nine recommendations. The Home Office has accepted 7 recommendations and partially accepted one. The Home Office has not accepted one recommendation.
Recommendation 1
The Home Office should establish a consistent assurance regime with a focus on decision quality.
Accepted
The department has already combined the previously held two caseworking teams into one joint Unit: Afghan and Family Reunion Casework. The formation and management of a consistent assurance regime has been established within that Team to ensure a focus on consistency and decision quality in line with internally published decision assurance frameworks.
Recommendation 2
Not accepted
The department has assessed that there are no advantages or benefits for the individuals or the department to retrospectively contact those who were transferred to ACRS, to advise them of that change. As there is likely to be no substantive material disadvantage suffered as a result of being flipped from UKRS to ACRS, there is reasonable justification in deciding not to inform this cohort of the change.
The Home Office should contact all those who were unilaterally transferred (‘flipped’) to ACRS to advise them of the change.
Recommendation 3
The Home Office should publish information regarding the pause to processing overseas applications to Afghan resettlement schemes, including the reason(s) for the pause, the date the pause took effect and a proposed timeframe for when decision making on the outcome of applications will recommence.
Accepted
The oral statement delivered on 28 March 2023 by the Rt. Hon. Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs clarified that future arrivals would go directly into appropriate accommodation[footnote 1]. The Home Office notified eligible overseas applicants on 22 May 2023 that travel to the UK will only be arranged when suitable accommodation has been secured.
The Home Office announcement of 27 June 2023 further clarified that the need for future arrivals to go directly into appropriate accommodation had led to the delay. This announcement did not have any effect on decisions about eligibility for relocation or resettlement to the UK.
The Home Office issued letters to overseas applicants between July and October 2023 advising them that visa issuing had resumed.
Recommendation 4
The Home Office should establish and maintain contact with all ARAP or ACRS applicants whose entry clearance applications have been ‘paused’, to advise them of the pause in processing their applications and to provide regular updates on the progress towards resuming the issuing of visas.
Accepted
The Home Office published information regarding the delay in processing overseas applications on 22 May 2023, with notification that there will be a temporary delay in issuing visas and facilitating travel until suitable accommodation is in place. The announcement did not have any effect on decisions about eligibility for relocation or resettlement to the UK.
The Home Office began issuing letters to overseas applicants in July 2023 advising them that visa issuing had resumed. The process continues of issuing visas in line with the corresponding cases that are manifested onto flights to the UK.
Recommendation 5
The Home Office should prioritise and adequately resource the cleansing of applicant data relating to all Afghan resettlement schemes to provide as accurate a dataset as possible.
Accepted
The Home Office had already prioritised and were undertaking a data cleanse exercise to provide as accurate a dataset as possible, pre-inspection. The data cleanse has now been concluded. Afghan resettlement data is now regularly published as part of the quarterly immigration system statistics release.
Recommendation 6
The Home Office should develop robust contingency plans to prepare for future crisis events. These plans must focus on the accurate collection and assurance of data.
Accepted
The Home Office commenced a review of lessons learned from this crisis event across all internal functions in July 2023.
The lessons learned review findings, recommendations and action plan will continue from September 2023 and is drawing to a close in winter 2023. The Home Office will also build upon existing internal plans for the accurate collection and assurance of data to develop robust contingency plans.
Recommendation 7a
The Home Office should: a. publish its equality impact assessments in respect of Afghan resettlement schemes on GOV.UK, where this would not harm national security or operational effectiveness.
Partially accepted
As part of its normal review of protocols and practice, the Home Office is currently undertaking a full review of all equality impact assessments (EIA) in relation to the Afghan resettlement schemes.
The Home Office will decide at the conclusion of the EIA review process about publishing its EIAs in respect to the Afghan resettlement schemes, taking into account whether such publication would harm national security or operational effectiveness.
The Home Office has included the EIA review process and consideration of publishing on GOV.UK within its internal ICIBI recommendations action plan.
Recommendation 7b
The Home Office should: ensure that all significant policy updates or developments (as defined in the ‘Home Office Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessment guidance’) in Afghan resettlement schemes are subject to an equality impact assessment (or a review if an existing equality impact assessment is in place), to ensure that due regard is being given to the three strands of the public sector equality duty.
Accepted
The Home Office will review and ensure that all significant policy updates or developments (as defined in the ‘Home Office Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessment guidance’) in Afghan resettlement schemes are subject to an equality impact assessment (or a review if an existing equality impact assessment is in place).
Recommendation 7c
The Home Office should: ensure that all existing and future equality impact assessments in relation to Afghan resettlement schemes have a defined review date, with an assurance mechanism in place to ensure that those reviews are undertaken, and records made of those reviews.
Accepted
The Home Office will put processes in place to ensure that all existing and future equality impact assessments in relation to Afghan resettlement schemes have a defined review date, with an assurance mechanism to ensure that those reviews are undertaken, and records made of those reviews.
Recommendation 8
The Home Office should publish updated guidance relating to those who were relocated during Operation PITTING with whom the Home Office has lost contact or has otherwise been unable to trace, to ensure they will not be subject to enforcement action solely because of a failure to regularise their immigration status.
Accepted
Guidance was published on GOV.UK in December 2023 with appropriate assurances and instructions for those people with whom the Home Office may have lost contact with or have otherwise been unable to trace.
Recommendation 9
The Home Office should set up an Afghan resettlement schemes working group to engage with stakeholders, the voluntary sector, NGOs and Afghan community groups to provide updates and seek feedback and lived experience in order to continuously improve Home Office caseworking.
Accepted
The Home Office has a long established Resettlement Stakeholder Engagement Group (RSEG) chaired by the Director of Resettlement Services.
The Home Office will include the Afghan resettlement schemes as part of the Resettlement Stakeholder Engagement Group (RSEG). This will enable stakeholders, the voluntary sector, NGOs and the Afghan community to provide updates and feedback and lived experience in order to continuously improve Home Office caseworking.