A decision has yet to be made on whether Afghans moving to the UK under the Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme will be granted indefinite leave to remain, a government minister has said.

Those who worked for the British military and UK government are able to move to the UK permanently and work under the Arap (Afghan relocations and assistance policy), the Home Office has announced.

But details of the second – and separate – resettlement scheme, which will aim to take in 20,000 people over the coming years, with a focus on women, children and religious and other minorities deemed vulnerable under the Taliban, are still to be worked out.

Separately, one of the UK’s most senior intelligence chiefs has held talks with Taliban leaders to negotiate safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals and Afghans who worked with UK forces. Sir Simon Gass, the chair of the joint intelligence committee, travelled to Doha in Qatar a few days ago to talk to Afghanistan’s new rulers as UK, US and other western troops pulled out.

Victoria Atkins, the newly appointed Afghan resettlement minister, when questioned about indefinite leave to remain for those under the resettlement scheme, told Sky News: “These decisions will be made in due course.”

At present, those being admitted under the resettlement scheme were being treated, in terms of hotel accommodation, as people under the Arap scheme, she said.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are working at pace on the resettlement scheme. We have 10,000 people who are in quarantine hotels at the moment. This is the largest ever evacuation scheme in living memory. And so it is going to take government and local government and charities and local communities a bit of time to put this framework in place. But that is what we are working on.”

At present the focus was on those already in the UK and who “helped the UK in the past”, she said, including interpreters, security guards and drivers. Under Operation Warm Welcome, the UK government has said it will provide GBP12m for children’s education, GBP3m for healthcare and GBP5m for housing support.

Atkins acknowledged that resettling Afghans could add extra pressure on the already strained housing stock. “I want to be straight with people – this is a very, very difficult challenge and we’re very, very aware of the pressures on the housing market and housing lists already,” she told Sky News. “That’s why we’ve announced this top-up fund to help councils find larger properties for Afghan families.

“This policy will succeed if we welcome and integrate people into our societies and we get them settled into accommodation, help their children get into schools, get them registered at GPs and so on, and then they can begin to pay back into our society.”

Atkins said she was confident more councils would join up to resettlement schemes, with around a third having made firm offers so far. “We’ve had firm offers from at least a third of councils and we’re in talks with many, many more, so I’m confident that number will change over the coming days,” she told Today.

Those eligible under Arap have been given indefinite leave to remain, rather than the five years’ residency previously offered. Since 13 August, the UK has evacuated more than 15,000 people from Afghanistan, of whom around 8,000 are eligible under Arap. Those already relocated in the UK with temporary residency can now upgrade their immigration status, allowing them access to permanent jobs with unrestricted rights to work.

UK officials and the Taliban are in talks over how to secure safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals and Afghan allies. Gass, the prime minister’s special representative for Afghan transition, has travelled to Qatar and is meeting with “senior Taliban representatives” to stress the importance of allowing people to leave Afghanistan.

In addition 15 crisis response specialists are being deployed to Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to assist British diplomats in their work to allow people to escape Afghanistan over land borders and reach the UK.