Question to the Home Office:

o ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when Ministers of her Department first were made aware of immigration status difficulties affecting the Windrush generation; and what steps they took as a result.

The Department was made aware of the immigration status difficulties of individual cases, as flagged by members of the House and the media. The wider issue around the immigration status difficulties affecting some of the Windrush generation has come to the fore, and the attention of Ministers, in recent months. On the 16 April we set up a Taskforce to help those affected get documents they need and on 30 May, the Windrush Scheme came into force. This Scheme is designed to ensure that members of this generation, their children born in the UK and those who arrived in the UK as minors will be able to apply for citizenship, or various other immigration products, free of charge.