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Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Tuesday 20th December 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many migrants have been intercepted by the crew transfer vessels (a) Hurricane and (b) Typhoon while crossing the English Channel in small boats; and how many of those migrants were subsequently (i) brought to the UK and (ii) returned to France.

Answered by James Heappey

The Ministry of Defence does not hold a record of which of the crew transfer vessels are involved in the recovery of individual small boat migrants. All migrants intercepted by crew transfer vessels are brought to the UK. The total number of migrants who have crossed the English channel this year is 44,763.


Written Question
Afghanistan: Refugees
Thursday 15th December 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications for resettlement to the UK under the Ex-Gratia Scheme for Afghan former locally employed staff there were from 4 June 2013 to 30 November 2022; how many of those applications were approved; and how many remain outstanding.

Answered by James Heappey

Under the Ex-Gratia Scheme (EGS), eligible locally employed staff could apply for three offers: financial, training or relocation.

Under the relocation offer, 526 principals were approved and have relocated to the UK with their family members.

There are eight EGS applications outstanding. We are actively supporting the relocation of those applicants still wishing to relocate to the UK.


Written Question
Afghanistan: Refugees
Wednesday 14th December 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy applications have received decisions as of 16 November.

Answered by James Heappey

Between August 2021 and November 2022, over 8.800 decisions have been issued to principal applicants. It is important to note that issuing decisions to principal applicants will simultaneously close all duplicate applications that the principal may have also submitted. As such, the total number processed during this period will be significantly higher.


Written Question
Afghanistan: Refugees
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy applications are outstanding as of 16 November.

Answered by James Heappey

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 21 November to Question 77550 to the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Singh Dhesi).


Written Question
Afghanistan: Refugees
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, by which date a (a) category four and (b) other applicant to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy would need to have applied if they were to have received a decision before 1 November 2022.

Answered by James Heappey

Due to the way Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) applications are processed, it is not possible to provide a response to the hon. Member's question asked as decision making timeframes can vary considerably. This is due to numerous factors, including the initial amount of evidence received, level of complexity of the case, the need to conduct checks with other Government Departments, or the length of time it takes an applicant to respond to follow-up queries. This particularly applies to those under Category Four, which are considered on a case-by-case basis and need to meet the criteria as stated on Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-relocations-and-assistance-policy/afghan-relocations-and-assistance-policy-information-and-guidance


Written Question
Afghanistan: Refugees
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy applications are considered in date order; and whether applications that are lost by his Department and subsequently resubmitted would be considered according to the date on which they were initially submitted.

Answered by James Heappey

Rather than being processed in the order in which they were received, new Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) applications are triaged to separate out those that are clearly ineligible and those more likely to be eligible. These are then allocated to separate casework teams to process.

The system used by casework teams ensures that applications are not lost, by collating applications made on the UK government website and providing all ARAP applications are provided with a unique reference number at the point of submission, which is recorded. Significant progress has been made to accelerate the decision-making process in recent months, including uplifts in resourcing and investment in the aforementioned system.


Written Question
Refugees: Afghanistan
Wednesday 16th November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the current average length of time taken to reach a decision on an application for relocation to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

Answered by James Heappey

Not all ARAP applicants will receive an eligibility decision within the same timeframe and the time taken varies enormously from case-to-case. This could be due to the complexity of the case, the need to conduct checks with other government departments, or the length of time it takes an applicant to respond to follow-up queries. Therefore, due to the significant variation, it is not possible to provide an average timescale.

I recognise the great concern all applicants to the scheme have for their safety and wellbeing. As such, considerable amounts of time, resources and personnel have been, and continue to be, deployed to ensure that applications are considered as quickly efficiently, accurately and fairly as possible.


Written Question
Refugees: Afghanistan
Wednesday 16th November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications for relocation to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy have been submitted by Afghan nationals in third countries since August 2021; and how many of those applications (a) were refused and (b) are pending.

Answered by James Heappey

We are unable to reliably provide the number of refused and pending applications under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme submitted specifically by Afghans in third countries.

It is not always possible to know the exact location of all those that apply for ARAP, as it is largely incumbent on them informing the casework team on their initial application. In addition, once an individual has been confirmed as eligible under the ARAP scheme their location data is amended throughout the process to reflect their relocation to the UK.


Written Question
Refugees: Afghanistan
Wednesday 16th November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking (a) to facilitate timely decision-making on outstanding applications for relocation to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and (b) to provide regular updates to individuals with applications outstanding.

Answered by James Heappey

We continue to receive a high number of applications, however, the majority of these are duplicates or are ineligible under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.

Considerable amounts of time, resources and personnel have been, and continue to be, deployed to ensure that applications are considered as quickly efficiently, accurately and fairly as possible. We are now actively processing and issuing decisions on more applications per month than we are receiving and have improved communications with applicants.

The regularity of application updates is specific to each case and is dependent on a number of factors, such as the amount of evidence received on an initial application, the level of complexity of the case, the need to conduct checks with other government departments, or the length of time it takes an applicant to respond to follow-up queries.


Written Question
Detention Centres: Manston
Thursday 10th November 2022

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what costs were incurred by (a) his Department and (b) the Home Department for the Secretary of State for the Home Department's flight in a Chinook from Dover to Manston on 3 November 2022.

Answered by James Heappey

The Chinook flight for the Home Secretary was incorporated into a routine training sortie. The costs of the legs for which the Home Secretary and her staff were embarked cannot be separated from the cost of the wider sortie.