Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the level of potential delay in issuing payments under the Windrush Compensation Scheme as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and what steps she is taking to ensure that applications to that scheme continue to progress during the covid-19 lockdown.

We are processing claims as quickly as possible, but all claims are different, and the time taken will depend on many factors, including the complexity of the case. We are committed to working with the claimant to ensure all possible information is taken into account and this will have an impact on the length of time it takes to process the claim. Wherever possible, we will make interim payments on parts of the claim that are straightforward to determine, such as immigration fees, thereby speeding up the provision of compensation. We recently published statistics on the payments made under the Windrush Compensation Scheme at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-compensation-scheme-data-may-2020. These show a clear increasing trajectory of payments: £362,997 paid in the first 12 months of the scheme, of which £300,799 was paid in the most recent three months of that period, which includes the initial period of the covid-19 lockdown. The Windrush Compensation Scheme continues to operate throughout the covid-19 lockdown. Business continuity measures are in place which allow claims to continue to be processed. Payments continue to be made.