Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Conclusion 44
Fifth Report - The Windrush Compensation Scheme
Published 24 Nov 2021
Paragraph 154
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee The Windrush Compensation Scheme All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We agree with Mr Forde that the higher standard of proof had no place in this scheme: its inclusion has damaged trust significantly and demonstrates a serious lack of understanding by the Home Office as to what caused the Windrush scandal in the first place. We are deeply concerned that, despite warnings from Wendy Williams and its then independent adviser, the Home Office has persisted in placing an undue burden on claimants to provide documentary evidence of the losses they suffered. This indicates a continued failure by the Department to learn the lessons from the Windrush scandal. It also reinforces our recommendation that the Windrush Compensation Scheme should be considered as part of Wendy Williams’ review of the Home Office’s progress on her recommendations (see paragraph 23).
From: Home Affairs Committee, Fifth Report - The Windrush Compensation Scheme (HC 204), paragraph 154, 24 November 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 February 2022 (deadline 24 January 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response to the Committee's Windrush Compensation Scheme report sets out mixed positions, declining a transfer to an independent body while describing changes already made to the scheme and some further work it is taking forward.
- On moving the scheme to an independent organisation, it says this would bring "more delays in issuing payments", and points instead to the Adjudicator's Office review process and an Independent Person advising on the scheme.
- It does not widen the historical cases review, calling that approach "costly, inefficient" and unlikely to locate affected people, and says it has focused on outreach and engagement instead.
- On the £10,000 preliminary award, it says it will process and offer it where "it is clear that the Home Office has wrongly enacted an immigration enforcement action", and that it cannot identify those who have not made contact with it.
- On caseworker capacity, it says the team has 80 caseworkers, with 24 more due to join over January and external recruitment under way to reach 120.