Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions Windrush records were used to confirm the immigration status of UK citizens in advance of the disposal of those records; and which (a) agencies of her Department and (b) Ministers of her Department received that information on immigration status.

No decision was taken to destroy ‘Windrush records’ specifically and records were not categorised as being related to a ‘Windrush migrant’ or the ‘Windrush generation’. Any Windrush papers would have been destroyed in line with the retention and disposal periods set for the wider records collections in which they were located.

When making immigration decisions, officials will have regard to a wide range of information and evidence. It is not possible to assess the full range of information considered in a case without an examination of each paper file (where these are available). This could only be done at disproportionate cost.