Windrush Lessons Learned Review

With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement on the long-awaited Windrush lessons learned review.

I dedicate this statement to the Windrush generation. I have personally been deeply moved by reading this report. Given the national significance of this issue, I have published the review immediately. I thank Wendy Williams and her team for the important work they have undertaken.

The Windrush lessons learned review gives voice to members of the Windrush generation who legally arrived in the UK to help rebuild post-war Britain. These men and women built their lives and their home in Britain. These people have done so much for this country, from staffing the NHS to rebuilding Britain. These are the very people who worked hard, paid their taxes and had every right to be in this country.

They contributed to our communities, culture and society, helping our public services and our economy to thrive. They made our country stronger, more vibrant and more successful as a nation. That is why we were all shocked to discover that they and their families were subject to such insensitive treatment by the very country they called home.

As this review makes clear, some members of the Windrush generation suffered terrible injustices, spurred by institutional failings, spanning successive Governments over several decades. That includes

“ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the…race and the history of the Windrush generation”.

Today’s publication is part of an ongoing mission to put this right and ensure such events can never happen again, as there were far too many victims of Windrush.

Paulette Wilson was detained in an immigration removal centre and warned that she faced removal after living in the UK for 50 years. She spent decades contributing to the UK—working for a time in this very House—yet she was treated like a second-class citizen.

Junior Green had been in the UK for more than 60 years, raising children and grandchildren here, but after a holiday to Jamaica he was refused re-entry despite holding a passport confirming his right to be in the UK. The injustice he suffered was compounded when, because of this action, he missed his mother’s funeral.

Lives were ruined and families were torn apart. Now, an independent review has suggested that the Home Office’s

“institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation”

contributed to it. This is simply unacceptable.

I have heard people speak of the decision making as a process that grinds people down to the extent that it makes them want to give up. I have heard people speak of being dismissed, and being labelled as a group of people who just do not matter and whose voice on this issue is irrelevant.

People have spoken to me of the indignity and inhumanity they still feel today following the experience of being made to feel unwelcome in their own country. They have described their experiences as unthinkable and unimaginable. However, there are people across the UK and even some Members of this House—including myself and the shadow Home Secretary—for whom this is unfortunately all too relatable.

There are lessons to learn for the Home Office, but also for society as a whole. Despite the diverse and open nature of our country, too many people still feel that they may be treated differently because of who they are or where their parents came from. Today’s report, which suggests that in the Home Office there was an

“institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation”

is worrying for us all.

In her report, Wendy Williams is clear that lessons must be learned at all levels and by all political parties. She describes a set of measures that evolved under Labour, coalition and Conservative Governments. Those measures cover decades. She states that Ministers did not sufficiently question unintended consequences and that officials should and could have done more. We must all look to ourselves. We must all do better at walking in other people’s shoes. We must all take responsibility for the failings that led to the unimaginable suffering of this generation.

Let me be clear, Mr Speaker. Nothing I can say today will undo the pain, suffering and misery inflicted on the Windrush generation. What I can do is say that on behalf of this and successive Governments, I am truly sorry for the actions that spanned decades. I am sorry that people’s trust has been betrayed. We will continue to do everything possible to ensure that the Home Office protects, supports and listens to every single part of the community it serves.

Action has already begun. In recent months, I have met and listened to people whose lives were shattered. Since 2018, we have launched measures to put right the wrongs caused to individual members of the Windrush generation. We have taken action through practical measures to give those affected the assistance, certainty, reassurance and support they need. The Commonwealth citizens taskforce goes into communities to help and support people to secure their legal status. More than 11,700 people have been granted a form of documentation that confirms their right to remain in the UK and guarantees their access to public services. Our vulnerable persons team has provided support to nearly 1,400 people, with approximately 120 people still receiving support. The team has supported more than 360 people to secure access to benefits.

To go some way in addressing the hardship suffered, the Home Office launched the Windrush compensation scheme. The scheme was designed in close consultation with members of the community and Martin Forde, QC. Collectively, they have developed a compensation scheme that is straightforward to use and addresses the bespoke personal circumstances and needs of every applicant, with dedicated caseworkers assessing claims as quickly as possible. There is no cap on payments, dozens of which have already been made, and we encourage more applications. Those who are eligible will receive full compensation.

More than 100 community events have taken place so far. That includes more than 30 compensation scheme events across the country, from Southampton to Glasgow and Cardiff to Coventry. However, there are still people out there in need of our help who we have not yet reached. That is why in February, I extended the length of the compensation scheme by a further two years so that claims can be submitted until April 2023. I set up the Windrush stakeholder advisory group to rebuild links with communities to ensure that they are supported through compensation, but also to rebuild the trust that has been broken.

Today, I can confirm we will launch an expanded cross-Government Windrush working group to develop programmes to improve the lives of those affected. That may be through employment programmes, dedicated mental health support and specialist education and training schemes. To ensure that people know about the taskforce, the Windrush compensation scheme will have a dedicated communications campaign promoting the scheme. We will also open a £500,000 fund for grassroots organisations to promote these schemes, including provisions for specialist advice services. I would like to extend my personal thanks to Martin Forde, QC, for his support with the creation of the scheme.

I want to put on record my thanks to my predecessors—my right hon. Friends the Members for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid) and for Maidenhead (Mrs May), and the former Member for Hastings and Rye—who worked hard to understand and undo the suffering when these issues first came to light, and other Members, including the right hon. Members for Tottenham (Mr Lammy) and for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), who shone a necessary light on this injustice. I also want to thank the thousands of civil servants at the Home Office and across Government who work tirelessly every single day in challenging and demanding jobs to keep the public and our country safe. Whether on the frontline or working to develop policies for the future, their commitment to create a safer country for us all is commendable.

Since these injustices were brought to light, civil servants have used every endeavour to right the wrongs, giving people their correct status and supporting them in their financial compensation claims. However, it would be wrong for the Department to ignore Wendy Williams’s finding that the Home Office’s

“institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation”

contributed to this. This is not something that can be resolved with an apology or compensation.

I will review the recommendations that Wendy Williams makes in relation to the way the Home Office operates as an organisation. I will continue to look closely at its leadership, culture, practices and the way it views the communities it serves. Over the coming months, myself and Matthew Rycroft—the new permanent secretary—and the second permanent secretary will work together with our dedicated staff at all levels to reflect on the recommendations, including those relating to compliant environment policies and cultural change. Fundamentally, I want to make the Home Office a better place to work. That will include a clarification of the Department’s purpose, mission and values, putting at its heart fairness, dignity and respect. We will put people before process.

The publication of this review is a small but vital step towards ensuring that the Home Office is trusted by all the people it serves. I encourage anyone who thinks that they have been affected by the Windrush scandal or who requires support or assistance to come forward. I will bring forward a detailed formal response in the next six months, as Wendy Williams has recommended, representing a new chapter for the Home Office. Let me assure the House that everyone at the Home Office will be asking the difficult questions needed to ensure that these circumstances can never arise again. I commend this statement to the House.

We meet as a House of Commons at a time of unprecedented national crisis—a national crisis that none of us has seen before in our lifetime—but I am sure the Home Secretary will agree that we should not allow the fact that the review has been published at a time of national crisis to mean that the review and its recommendations are buried. The Windrush generation deserve better than that.

As the Home Secretary will know, the recommendations in this review have three main elements: that the Home Office must acknowledge the wrong that has been done; that it must open itself up to external scrutiny; and that it must change its culture, to recognise that migration and wider Home Office policy is about people, and whatever the objective, it should always be rooted in humanity.

The Home Secretary will be aware that the review points out:

“Some ministers and senior officials spoken to in the course of this review do not appear to accept the full extent of the injustice done to the Windrush generation”,

and that they say

“the situation was unforeseen, unforeseeable and therefore unavoidable.”

More than one Member of this House foresaw the consequences of the hostile environment legislation years ago.

The review goes on to say that other Ministers and senior officials

“have expressed the view that the responsibility really lay with the Windrush generation themselves to sort out their status.”

Will the Home Secretary agree that, whichever politicians or officials said those things—Wendy Williams quotes them in the review—they were disgraceful things to say?

The review has many important and detailed recommendations. I cannot touch on them all, but I wish to draw the Home Secretary’s attention to a few. The review wants the Department to publish a comprehensive improvement plan within six months. Is the Home Secretary willing to assure the House that there will be such a plan? The review asks that the Home Office run a programme of reconciliation events with members of the Windrush generation. Does the Home Secretary commit to that?

First of all, let me say in response to the right hon. Lady’s point about the publication of the review that this is an independent review. I received a copy of it yesterday from Wendy Williams and I have, through all the due process in the House, laid the review this morning, in a timely way, in the Vote Office, using all the procedural routes that are normal to this House. I know that the right hon. Lady came to my office and picked up a copy, but copies were also available earlier on this morning—we checked that, and as she knows, I also gave her sight of my statement earlier, prior to coming to the Chamber.

I made a commitment to publish the report as soon as possible. It came to me yesterday, and I have done that, primarily because of the nature of the response and the concerns that this House has consistently and rightly raised when it comes to the Windrush generation. That, in my view, was the right thing to do, and I would not have been able to publish the review any earlier, because obviously it came to me from Wendy Williams yesterday. The timing of the report was decided by Wendy Williams, as the independent reviewer. Let me assure the right hon. Lady that I discussed with Wendy Williams yesterday how I will work with her on the recommendations going forward. I will be doing that over the coming months, in the way in which Wendy has asked and alluded to in the report. I will ensure that this issue continues to get the national prominence that it rightly deserves.

I also think, on that point, that this is the time for us all across this House to come together to right the wrongs. I have made it clear in my statement already that not only will I review Wendy’s recommendations on how the Home Office operates as an organisation, looking closely at, yes, the leadership, the culture, the practices and how it needs to put people before process—I cannot emphasise that enough—but I will also look at how we review policies and cultural change going forward. That is absolutely the right thing to do, but I emphasise that, in many of the measures and recommendations, and in the extent of the review—I have no doubt that when the right hon. Lady has the opportunity she will go through the review and read it, as I have—Wendy Williams is very clear that lessons must be learned at all levels, by all political parties. She describes the set of measures that evolved under Labour, coalition and Conservative Governments, and is clear those are lessons that we should all be learning, as politicians and as society, but also as Members of this House.

May I first associate myself with the unqualified apology that the Home Secretary has given to the Windrush generation? I have given my own apology previously, but I do so again today. This generation came here, they were British, they were here legally, they worked to build our country and they should not have been treated in this way. I recognise the commitment that my right hon. Friend has given to ensuring that the Home Office learns the lessons set out in the review.

May I draw my right hon. Friend’s attention to one of the elements that she referred to in her statement? Wendy Williams says in her review that

“a lack of insight into the community’s experience did delay an understanding of the problems being faced by the Windrush generation and led to opportunities being missed for resolving cases sooner.”

The Home Secretary referred to the fact that too many people still feel that they may be treated differently because of who they are or where their parents came from. Against that background, does she agree that the work of the race disparity audit, which I set up when I was Prime Minister, is absolutely critical in relation to this, and not just that that work should continue, but that every Department should act on the failings and the gaps in public sector provision for certain communities that are highlighted by that audit?

I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) for her thoughtful comment. I emphasise and echo the work that she has done, but acknowledge her apology as well. She is absolutely right about the role of the race disparity audit. There is much that we can all take from this review. We should all as individuals be more conscious and aware not just of how we engage people, but of how we reach an understanding of communities and cultures, to help us all and to inform decision making and policies across Government in the future.

This is a welcome statement and a welcome start, but it is only a start. The old maxim applies: legislate in haste, repent at leisure. The tragedy is that the price paid by some is significant and the actions of Government have been shameful, so an apology is both right and overdue. I recall as Justice Secretary of Scotland meeting a gentleman in his late 40s or 50s who, as a babe in arms, had left Scotland and gone to Australia. All his family and friends were in Australia. He had fallen from grace, developed an alcohol problem, committed a crime and been deported. I said then that the actions of the Government of Australia were shameful, and I repeat now that I believe the behaviour and actions of the UK Government are equally shameful when they replicate that. That gentleman was Australian, despite the passport he carried.

Will the Home Secretary ensure that those members of the Windrush generation who have been deported and who possess a different passport from the one that we in this Chamber have, but who are UK citizens the same as we are, are allowed to return? Will she also ensure that offenders from abroad who must be deported are rightly sent home, but that those who possess a passport from Jamaica, Nigeria or wherever else, who have grown up in this country and are UK citizens, should be entitled to those rights?

Equally, although I believe the commitment to implement the recommendations is wholehearted and sincere, it is more than just a matter of living up to the recommendations; it must reflect the spirit of Wendy Williams’ report. I ask that the Government take on board those two points.

I would like to make a number of points in response to the hon. Gentleman’s comments. First, he has already spoken to me about reviewing the recommendations, but I opened my statement by saying that I was deeply moved by reading the report, and I suggest that he too gives it some consideration and looks at the many recommendations made. In particular, I referenced the fact that we still have work to do in reaching members of the community, and I called for other individuals who feel that they have been affected to come forward, so that we can secure their status and provide the compensation that may be due to them.

There is something more fundamental, though. No amount of compensation or any process now can resolve the injustices that have happened. My focus right now is fundamentally not only to ensure that the recommendations are reviewed and undertaken, but to work with colleagues and Wendy Williams to ensure that we do this in the right way to bring about the change that we all want to see.

I commend my right hon. Friend for her statement and for the apology she has given. The reality is that the Windrush generation, when they arrived here, were met with racism and outright hostility. That they have been treated so badly after so many years of service to this country is an absolute disgrace and a stain on our society. Will my right hon. Friend say a little more about what she can do to reach out to people who have been deported, or who are outside this country and wish to return but are not covered at the moment by what the Home Office is doing, so that they too can receive justice in the right way?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right in his reflective remarks about the citizens who came to our country legally, in effect to rebuild our nation and join our public services. For many decades, that generation experienced great hostility and overt racism in our country. As much as our country has moved forward, made progress and changed, as I said, there much that we need to do and we must all look at ourselves. He is also right to highlight people of other nationalities—citizens of Commonwealth countries in particular. The shadow Home Secretary also referred to Commonwealth citizens who were caught up in this. I know the report speaks very much about the Windrush generation—people who originated in Caribbean communities—but many other people from Commonwealth countries have been affected. As part of our work in the Home Office, we will of course endeavour to reach out through our engagement programmes to individuals from Commonwealth countries too.

Wendy Williams’ Windrush lessons learned review is a brutal indictment of the Home Office, which shows that it is wholly unfit for the society it is supposed to serve. The review states that the Home Office displayed “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness” on race issues that is

“consistent with some elements of the definition of institutional racism.”

The review accuses the Home Office of having a “defensive culture” that makes it deaf to those raising genuine concerns. Will the Home Secretary accept today, in this House, that, as was said previously, this was not a mistake or an accident, but a systemic pattern of appalling behaviour, rooted in a toxic internal culture and a failure of the Department to understand Britain’s colonial history?

Will the Home Secretary commit at the Dispatch Box to implement every single recommendation in this review? Will she review the £62,000 that has been paid out to those who should be compensated by far more? Will she ensure, at the Dispatch Box today, that she will end the hostile environment, which amplified things and has brought this about? The report asks for contrition and genuine understanding. We will hold her to account and to her word that that contrition is genuine, so that we right these shameful wrongs.

I would urge the right hon. Gentleman to work with us all, collectively, to right these wrongs. I have been clear in my statement today, not just in giving an unequivocal apology, but in highlighting, as Wendy Williams has in an incredibly moving and thoughtful way, many of the issues that have led to the 30 recommendations she has made in this review. I will come back to the House and give all the recommendations full consideration.

The right hon. Gentleman has heard me say, and I have made this commitment to Wendy Williams, that I will work with her on reviewing the recommendations. That is the right thing to do. It is the right way to prevent something such as this from ever happening again.

The right hon. Gentleman also asked me about the culture within the Home Office. I have been clear that I am going to review all aspects of the Home Office. I will continue to look at the leadership, and at the changes we need to make to the culture and to policies; I have been clear about that in my statement. I will absolutely come back to the House, once I have worked with Wendy Williams, and share the details of how we will proceed as a Department in picking up the recommendations in this lessons learned review.

My right hon. Friend has disclosed that the first time she received this was report was yesterday and that she published it at the earliest possible opportunity today. Will she also disclose when officials at the Home Office first had sight of this report?

My hon. Friend is right to say that I received the report yesterday and, such is its importance, I published it today. Last July, Wendy Williams began the representations in the Maxwellisation process; those officials who have been involved and engaged in this process did not have sight of the actual review or report, because obviously it has taken time for that to come together, but there has been ongoing work and dialogue with key officials, former Ministers and many other interviewees Wendy has worked with for the publication of this review. That has taken place over a long period of time.

This report is deeply disturbing, but it also tells us many of the things we have been raising concerns about since the Windrush crisis emerged. The result of it is that British citizens have been deported, been denied NHS treatment, been cost their jobs and been made homeless by the actions of the British Government, who act in all of our names. So all of us should be deeply ashamed by what has happened to the Windrush generation and determined that this should never happen again; the conclusions on racism are particularly damning. The Home Secretary will know that consecutive Home Affairs Committee reports, and reports from previous Committees as well, have often raised many of the concerns embedded in this report: concerns about the hostile environment; about the casework culture— the culture of disbelief; about the net migration target; and about a series of problems within the Home Office, but they have not had an impact. Some of the most damning conclusions in Wendy Williams’ report are that this was foreseeable and avoidable and that, since the Windrush crisis broke, the action that has been taken has been dealing only with the symptoms and not the causes. Will she therefore urgently agree to accept all the recommendations about scrutiny and openness in the Home Office, so that she can prove to Parliament that she is, in fact, going to make the fundamental changes that are needed?

The right hon. Lady is right in her identification of the issues that existed over a period of time—Wendy Williams was also very clear about them in her review. Over several decades, and under successive Governments, those policies were part of the culture and the environment of the Home Office. I am clear that I will review all the recommendations, and I will work with Wendy. There may be recommendations that I can proceed with sooner rather than later, and I am absolutely committed to doing that, because there are structural and cultural issues at the heart of this. They are so self-evident in this report that no one can sit back and digest them lightly, or close their eyes and ears to many of the challenges and to some of the deeply moving points that have been made. I will come back to the House on this, but I will work absolutely vigorously with Wendy to look at every single recommendation and consider which ones we can proceed with at pace and very soon.