Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 88
Fifth Report - The Windrush Compensation Scheme
Published 24 Nov 2021
Paragraph 277
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee The Windrush Compensation Scheme All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the personal commitment expressed by the Home Secretary to the operation of the scheme and the improvements that have been made to the scheme over time; however, these changes have taken far too long and have not gone far enough. Our report shows that there are still fundamental problems that have yet to be addressed. The problems with the Windrush Compensation Scheme are not insurmountable. We have been humbled by the dignity and the determination of those with direct experience of the issues who have contributed to our inquiry and by The Windrush Compensation Scheme 101 their willingness to assist with the identification of areas which can be improved, for the benefit of others. To demonstrate its commitment both to helping the Windrush generation and to transforming its culture, the Home Office must act urgently to address issues with the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
From: Home Affairs Committee, Fifth Report - The Windrush Compensation Scheme (HC 204), paragraph 277, 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.