THE government said today that it “regrets” the time taken to establish the decision-making process which led to the controversial effort to evacuate animal welfare charity staff from Afghanistan.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said an “error” in internal communication led some of its staff to believe Prime Minister Boris Johnson had given an order to prioritise Nowzad employees ahead of others for evacuation when the Taliban took control of the country.

Ministers and officials gave evidence to a cross-party group of MPs in “good faith” and at “no stage” intended to be “deliberately” misleading, the FCDO said.