All Home Office staff will be trained on Britain’s ‘history of migration and race’ after department was slammed in critical Windrush scandal report
- Home Office published an improvement plan in response to an official inquiry
- Home Secretary Priti Patel said Windrush generation ‘waited too long for justice’
- Department also reiterated its pledge to review the hostile environment policy
Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured on 15 September, vowed to deliver ‘justice’ for the Windrush generation and their descendants
All Home Office staff will be trained on Britain’s ‘history of migration and race’ after the department was slammed in a critical Windrush scandal report.
The move is part of a series of measures set out in an improvement plan which seeks to overhaul the culture of the department so staff are ‘focused on people’ and not cases.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘I am leading an unprecedented programme of change to build a Home Office fit for the future, that serves every part of the community it serves.
‘The Windrush generation have waited too long for justice and my resolve to deliver for them and their descendants is absolute. This is the first part of our plan to deliver meaningful change.’
The department reiterated its pledge to review the hostile environment policy, as recommended in the Windrush Lessons Learned Review by Wendy Williams.
It also said it will develop training for all staff so they are ‘focused on people’ and not cases while every member of staff will have to take part in training on the ‘history of migration and race in this country’.
The Home Office worked with leaders of community groups and the Windrush Cross-Government working group to form the response to the 30 recommendations.
In response to the publication, Ms Williams, who made a string of recommendations to the Home Office on how to improve, said the department had a ‘duty’ to those affected by the scandal to deliver on its commitments.
She added: ‘It must now act swiftly to open itself up to greater external scrutiny and to implement wide-ranging cultural change.’
Jamaican immigrants are welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship HMT Empire Windrush landed them at Tilbury in 1948
The Empire Windrush was most famous for trips from the West Indies which brought people to work in the UK in the middle of the 20th century
She said the plan set out by the department was ‘comprehensive and ambitious in many respects’ but warned some plans, like the appointment of a Migrants’ Commissioner require ‘greater clarity and pace if the department is to be successful in its aim to rebuild public trust’.
In the 270-page report, titled Windrush Lessons Learned Review, found the scandal was ‘foreseeable and avoidable’ and victims were let down by ‘systemic operational failings’ at the Home Office.
The Government department demonstrated ‘institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness’ towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation, Ms Williams found.
A compensation scheme was set up after hundreds of thousands of people from Caribbean countries and their families were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants by the Home Office in 2018, denied legal rights, and threatened with deportation.
They had been encouraged to come to Britain to help fill major UK labour shortages after the Second World War between 1948 and 1971.
The group was labelled the Windrush Generation after travelling on the ship MV Empire Windrush, which docked in Tilbury, Essex, on June 22, 1948.
Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft said: ‘The Windrush scandal is a spur to action – to make sure that nothing like this can ever happen again in the Home Office.
‘We have begun to respond to all the recommendations and will keep going until we have completed the job.
‘Our response today sets out how we are shifting the culture to ensure our workforce is focused on people, not cases.’
Bishop Derek Webley, co-chair of the Windrush Cross-Government Working Group, added: ‘The Windrush Cross-Government Working Group has been working with the Home Office to support its Response to the Lessons Learned Review.
‘We are pleased that its publication takes us a step further on the journey to righting the wrongs, and look forward to progressing its implementation over the coming months.’
Ms Williams will review the progress of the department after a year.
Majority of Windrush scandal compensation claimants are still without payment after scheme pays out £1million to 143 victims – despite 1,480 applications
The majority of Windrush scandal claimants have still not received compensation pay, with the scheme having dished out £1million to just 143 victims to date.
Official figures indicate that £1,053,223.17 had been paid out in response to 143 claims as of July – despite 1,480 claims being made by Windrush victims since the Windrush Compensation Scheme was launched in April last year.
Since the previous set of figures was published, five more claims have been made on behalf of victims who have already died, taking the total number to 65.
Members of the Windrush generation Paulette Wilson and Anthony Bryan: Mr Bryan, of Edmonton, north London, was one of those wrongly arrested, having been detained twice in recent years and told to return to Jamaica, which he left in 1965 aged eight
MPs have previously warned that there is a risk of people dying before they receive compensation owed unless the Government steps up its efforts.
Now Priti Patel, the home secretary, has said that the scheme is ‘complicated’ and that she wants to see compensation ‘sped up’.
And a group of nine law firms wrote to the Home Office in August claiming that the compensation scheme is failing to provide access to justice.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the time for words from the Government on the issue is over.
MPs have previously warned that there is a risk of people dying before they receive compensation owed unless the Government steps up its efforts (left: Windrush generation grandmother Jessica Eugene; right: Allan Wilmot in the BBC’s The Unwanted)
Windrush campaigners delivering a petition to Downing Street signed by over 130,000 people, calling for action to address failings which led to the scandal, June 19, 2020
‘This is yet more damning evidence that Government ministers are failing the many victims of the Windrush scandal,’ he said. ‘People who have been appallingly treated are facing unacceptable waits for compensation.
‘This is particularly awful for those who are working and those in later life. The time for words from the Government is over – ministers need to get on and deliver for those who have been so badly treated.’
Ms Patel said: ‘I am pleased that the compensation scheme has now paid out more than £1million and that a further £800,000 has been offered, but we are determined to go further and faster.
‘It is my unwavering commitment to ensure that those whose lives were blighted and shattered receive the compensation that they deserve.’