Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the statement by the Secretary of State for the Home Department on 23 June 2020 (HC Deb col. 1193), what progress they have made towards implementing recommendations 9 and 10 of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review (HC 93) to create a Migrants Commissioner and to give more powers to the Independent Chief Inspector for Borders and Immigration.

In March 2020 the then Home Secretary published Wendy Williams’s Windrush Lessons Learned Review, which set out 30 recommendations for the department.

A range of options have been considered for delivering these recommendations, which have been discussed with external stakeholders. The Home Office is taking steps to be more transparent to ensure that the department is as open as possible to all types of scrutiny, both internal and external.

We committed to working with the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) to deliver an internal review of our complaint’s procedures, and we delivered by establishing the Office for the Independent Examiner of Complaints on the 17 October 2022. Furthermore, the Home Office has established the Community and Stakeholder Engagement Hub which has supported colleagues across the Department to deliver on improvements to engagement. This includes improvements in terms of accessibility and involving stakeholders in innovative ways. The aim to keep improving our engagement practices is being embedded into the Department's transformation programme.

We will keep the Home Affairs Select Committee updated on the progress of all the Wendy Williams recommendations.