Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department will take to ensure progress on disbursing payments through the Windrush Compensation Scheme.

Since April 2019 the Windrush Compensation Scheme has offered almost £30 million in compensation, of which more than £20.4 million has been paid. In December we overhauled the Scheme and the changes have had an immediate effect on the speed and value of offers of compensation. Since the end of December we have paid more than six times the total amount paid previously.

However, we recognise we still have more to do to speed up the processing of claims and are committed to reducing the time between submission and decision significantly over the coming months, as a result we have taken the following actions:

• We have recruited five additional caseworkers and a further 20 are in the process of being recruited.
• We are directing resources to where they are needed most to maximise final decision output.
• We are reviewing the scheme’s guidance, training and letters.

A particular focus is the application of evidence thresholds and the gathering of evidence by caseworkers to ensure decision making is as straightforward and streamlined as possible.