Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps with the Home Secretary to accelerate the processing of Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme applications made by British Council (a) contractors and (b) contractors' family members; and if he will make a statement.

The Government received over 11,400 expressions of interest (EOI) under ACRS Pathway 3. We have informed over 200 individuals that they are eligible in principle, subject to passing security checks. Including their dependents, this accounts for over 900 of the 1500 available places on Pathway 3 in year one. We are continuing to work at pace to allocate the remaining places. We will not be commenting on individual cohort numbers while EOIs are still being processed and security checks are outstanding. We will update Parliament once we have completed the allocation process, notified all those who submitted EOIs and have assured data to share.