Image source, UK Parliament

There was plenty to digest as the Foreign Affairs Committee examined what a whistleblower called the chaotic and dysfunctional withdrawal from Kabul this summer.

As we close the live page, here is a re-cap of the main things we heard:

• The Foreign Office's most senior civil servant has said he regrets taking a 17-day holiday as the crisis in Afghanistan unfolded this August
• Sir Philip Barton said if he had his time again he would have returned much sooner from the part-UK part-foreign break
• Nobody wanted the UK's engagement in Afghanistan to end the way it did, he added
• Challenged over claims by a whistleblower than emails went unread, Sir Philip said a review found no breaches of the Civil Service code - but things had been challenging
• "We aren't saying we did a good job, we're saying we evacuated 15,000 people," Sir Philip said
• Diplomats were left "mortified" after unredacted documents detailing the names and addresses of Afghans who had helped the UK were found in the abandoned Kabul embassy
• Sir Laurie Bristow, the former Afghan ambassador, said it was an achievement to have evacuated 15,000 people
• He denied pets were prioritised over people after a flight for animals rescued by the Nowzad charity set up by ex-Royal Marine Pen Farthing was cleared for departure
• In an awkward exchange, Sir Laurie and Sir Philip remained silent and denied misleading MPs when confronted with a letter that appears to suggest those working for the Nowzad charity and their families were cleared for evacuation by Prime Minister Boris Johnson
• Sir Laurie recalled the moment he realised Afghanistan would fall rapidly as around 13 and 14 August. He himself visited London between 7 and 11 August
• He said it became clear there would be a "surge" in the number of people who would seek to leave the country but exact numbers were "unknown"
• Nigel Casey, the PM's top aide on Afghanistan, says the plan was always to get people out before any Taliban takeover but that events took over

We've had some reaction from the committee's chair Tom Tugendhat, who says many Afghan allies and partners were "abandoned".

He said: "This crisis demanded, and deserved, the full attention of the Foreign Office. It seems that junior staff members and soldiers bore most of the burden, having been placed under huge pressure to make life-or-death decisions with insufficient guidance, support or oversight.

“The evidence we’ve heard today points to a lack of leadership, urgency and adequate resourcing.

“It is deeply painful how badly we have let Afghanistan down.

“I would like to reiterate my thanks to Raphael Marshall. His powerful and compelling evidence has helped bring fundamental failures to light.”

Tom Tugendhat finishes the session by asking the witnesses to pass on "enormous thanks" to many of their teams who he says have been "frankly extraordinarily courageous throughout a difficult period".

Sir Philip says he "appreciates the sentiment".

Chris Bryant says he has just been sent a letter to Pen Farthing, external from Trudy Harrison MP - the parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister - in which she says: "Animals under the care of Nowzad can be evacuated on a separate charter flight - the Ministry of Defence will ensure a flight is available."

"This doesn't equate with what you've told us this afternoon," says Bryant.

"I'm not aware of the letter," replies Sir Philip adding: "We've not set out this afternoon to mislead you."

"It feels like a cover-up," the Labour MP says adding "the prime minster's fingerprints are all over this."

Sir Philip repeats his assertion that he "wasn't aware of the letter".

There follows a long and slightly awkward silence.

Image source, PA Media

Conservative Bob Seely returns to the subject of the animal evacuations.

He asks if there was a ministerial instruction to help Pen Farthing's organisation, Nowzad.

Nigel Casey, the PM's special representative for Afghanistan, replies: "There was clearly a ministerial decision to help in the narrow sense by agreement the UK military would facilitate the landing of the charter which Pen Farthing's organisation had chartered.

"Flight clearance was done at direction of the defence secretary," he adds.

On August 27, Mr Wallace told BBC News supporters of Mr Farthing's animal charity rescue mission had "taken up too much time of my senior commanders dealing with this issue when they should be focused on dealing with the humanitarian crisis".

Sir Philip Barton says he does not believe Chris Bryant's characterisation of events is accurate.

He says the evacuation was not ideal but it was right to try to get people out.

The UK government honoured its commitment to those who were called forward and the Foreign Office is working with the Home Office on the Afghan resettlement scheme, he adds.

Labour MP Chris Bryant has just challenged the diplomats' version of events, delivering a withering assessment of the situation as it unfolded over those days after Kabul fell.

Here is what the MP said in full:

"What I think really happened is that ministers were desperate to please, they weren't courageous enough to say 'I'm sorry there's a limit to what I can do'.

"There wasn't enough preparation done from last year let alone from April this year to be able to do a proper evacuation of the numbers that we really knew we were likely to have to evacuate. We offered the prospect, the hope, the expectation, indeed, for lots and lots of people, that they might be able to come to the United Kingdom, cruelly in all honesty.

"And then when ministers had hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of emails from lots of MPs, and effectively the Foreign Office collaborated in making sure that ministers could say that 'we've ticked every single box' even though in truth not a single one of these names was ever really properly considered.

"That's what happened really, isn't it? And that's shameful."

Labour's Chris Bryant asks how the government dealt with letters from MPs raising cases of people still in Afghanistan.

Sir Philip says the Foreign Office replied to all MPs who had written by 6 September and adds that he is grateful to MPs for raising cases they may have missed.

Bryant says he sent a letter on 20 August listing people who might need help - he received a reply on 16 September saying the cases had been passed to the Home Office.

He asks if any of the cases were actually considered.

Sir Philip says the Home Office is responsible for processing the cases of people who are not British nationals.

Philip Barton tells the committee that decisions on who to help under the "special cases" scheme were decided based on a criteria drawn up by the then foreign secretary.

The criteria included contribution to UK objectives, vulnerability and in very rare cases whether they held sensitive information.

Tom Tugendhat asks if the lists of people to help were prepared by junior staff.

Nigel Casey replies that individuals were "sifted according to priority" then put to panels of more senior officials - all of which included someone with Afghan experience on who should be prioritised.

Labour's Chris Bryant asks how many journalists they estimated could be included in the special cases category

Sir Philip says they thought there were about 1,200, 500 of whom ended up on flights.

Nigel Casey says there were approaches from media groups including the BBC and Sky who wrote to the prime minister seeking help for particular individuals.

He says ministers decided the priority had to be British nationals, then those on the resettlement scheme, and then those considered to be special cases.

The MPs are back, and Labour's Chris Bryant resumes his questioning on "special cases" for evacuation.

Reality Check

Former Foreign secretary, Dominic Raab has defended the UK's handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan after a whistleblower – who worked in the Foreign Office at the time - said the response had been chaotic.

Mr Raab said the UK evacuated more people than any other nation except the US.

From 15 August to the end of that month, 15,000 people were evacuated by the UK, including 8,000 Afghans and 5,000 British nationals, according to the government.

The whistleblower, Raphael Marshall said he estimated that between 75,000 and 150,000 people applied for evacuation.

The US evacuated the largest number of people from Afghanistan in August. From 14 August to 28 August, it got 113,500 people out of the country.

Other countries evacuated much smaller numbers over that period, according to official statements and press releases.

• Germany - more than 5,300
• Italy - more than 5,000
• Canada - more than 3,700
• France - around 3,000

You can read more here.

The proceedings have been paused so that the MPs can take part in a Commons vote.

Labour's Chris Bryant wonders whether the three separate systems for processing eligible Afghans for evacuation was a "terrible mistake" and asks about the "special cases concept".

Sir Philip says that special cases played a part in filling spare capacity on UK flights and that the then-foreign secretary, the defence secretary and home secretary were involved in choosing who counted as a special case.

These ministers decided in the week of 16 August that spare capacity would be used to ensure special cases were evacuated.

Nigel Casey - the PM's special representative for Afghanistan - says that an early meeting of the Cobra emergency committee decided that there should be a third way for people to apply to leave Afghanistan for those ineligible under the two other schemes.

Intelligence officers, journalists and judges were among those who were considered under the "special cases" scheme, Bryant says.

Individuals would then be prioritised according to factors decided by the ministers, Casey adds.

Tom Tugendhat picks up the questions about who was on holiday and when.

He notes that the people who were away in August included: the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the foreign secretary, the national security adviser and the senior civil servants at the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence.

He asks Laurie Bristow if he had thought about taking a holiday.

Bristow replies that he was in London from 7 -11 August as part of "a planned rotation" of staff.

Foreign Office chief Sir Philip Barton again says he regrets taking a 17-day holiday at the height of the Afghan crisis. He says it was not clear Kabul would fall so soon when he went on leave.

He says he went on holiday on 9 August and returned on the 26th - between which time Kabul fell to the Taliban and Britain launched an evacuation effort for UK nationals and eligible Afghans.

Labour MP Chris Bryant says Sir Philip's statement on the holiday sounds "less credible each every time you repeat it... it just feels a bit scripted now".

Sir Philip declines to speak about then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab's holiday which occurred around the same time. Sir Philip says it is normal for secretaries of state and permanent secretaries to be away at the same time in holiday periods.

Bryant asks when Sir Philip booked the holiday and says that if the booking was made after it became clear there was a crisis in Afghanistan it would amount to a "dereliction of duty".

Sir Philip says there was "no inevitability" that Kabul would fall on 9 August but Bryant says evidence suggests that other organisations had predicted events would move quickly.

He repeatedly declines to say where he was on holiday.

Labour's Graham Stringer asks the ex-Afghanistan ambassador how many times he spoke to then-Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab ahead of the Taliban taking over.

Sir Laurie Bristow replies that he spoke to Raab twice in the first fortnight of August, before the fall of Kabul.

Stringer now asks how records of Afghans who'd helped the British forces were left behind in the embassy.

"We regret this very much," Philip Barton says.

He adds that a team was designated to destroy sensitive information but acknowledges a mistake was made "under immense pressure".

Bristow says he is "absolutely mortified" that it happened.

Asked if any of those whose details were in the documents are still at risk, Barton replies: "As far as I know - no."

Tory MP Alicia Kearns continues to question the diplomats on the impact of the evacuation of rescue animals on the withdrawal of Britons and eligible Afghans.

Sir Laurie Bristow describes efforts to drawdown the UK's efforts closer to the airfield after the bomb attack at the airport's Abbey Gate - and says there were considerable time constraints.

"Couldn't UK troops have been processing people not animals?", Kearns asks.

Sir Laurie says the issue was not planes - or capacity on planes - and that the trade-off was not as simple as being between people and animals.

Image source, NOWZAD

The committee has been asking questions about how animals from the Nowzad charity were evacuated from Afghanistan.

The organisation - run by Pen Farthing - was an animal shelter in Kabul which cared for dogs, cats and donkeys, some of them belonging to UK servicemen and women.

When the Taliban took control of the capital, its supporters launched a vociferous campaign for evacuation, saying staff were in danger due to their work with foreign organisations and the animals were at risk "because the Taliban considers companion animals, particularly dogs, unclean".

Mr Farthing and 150 animals were able to leave the country. His staff were left behind, but later made it safely to Pakistan.

Tom Tugendhat asks how much staff time the Nowzad evacuation took up.

"I don't know," replies Philip Barton.

Nigel Casey says "permission for the charter had to be sought and supported by the Ministry of Defence but it didn't detract from our operation".

Tugendhat asks if a flight could be arranged for Nowzad, why couldn't it be arranged for the five-year-old son of an Afghan interpreter - who Tugendhat had been trying to help.

"We operated on the basis of advice coming from the military... we followed their instructions and took people out on the timetable they gave us," replies Casey.

"I don't think it would have been possible to evacuate anyone else," he says adding that negotiations with the Taliban to extend the deadline for evacuations had been unsuccessful."

Laurie Bristow says: "We all left Kabul thinking about the people who we couldn't get out."