Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish the evidential basis for the decision that an application for the Windrush Scheme: Support in urgent and exceptional circumstances should not cost more than £5000.

The Government has committed to setting up a compensation scheme that will redress what went wrong and to assist those affected in the Windrush generation as quickly and carefully as possible.

The policy on support in urgent and exceptional circumstances applies where a specific support requirement is identified which requires immediate funding ahead of the Windrush Compensation Scheme being established. The policy statement published on 17 December includes among the factors for consideration that the cost should normally be less than £5,000.

This sum is arrived at following a small number of cases in which this kind of exceptional support has been provided by the Windrush Taskforce to date. If the urgent requirement exceeds £5,000 the Home Office will consider such claims.

The Windrush update provided to the Home Affairs Committee on 17 December includes details of exceptional financial support to the end of October 2018.