Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in dealing with compensation claims by Windrush victims.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The victims of the Windrush scandal suffered terrible injustices, and this Government remains steadfast in our commitment to do everything in our power to right the wrongs. We are determined to ensure everyone who was affected receives every penny of the compensation to which they are entitled. We are making significant progress towards achieving this aim, and we have now paid or offered more than £75 million in compensation as at the end of May 2023. Over 66% of claims received by the end of May 2023 have had a final decision.
Since its launch, the Home Office has continued to listen and respond to feedback from affected communities and stakeholders about how the Scheme operates and its accessibility. The changes we made to the Scheme in December 2020 and August 2022, mean people receive significantly more money more quickly. Last year we published redesigned claim forms and refreshed casework guidance, with the aim of reducing the time taken to process claims and improving individuals’ experiences of applying to the Scheme. We also made changes to the Homelessness category and created a new category, ‘Living Costs’, to compensate close family members for certain contributions to a primary claimant’s living costs. These significant and positive policy changes were made following consultation with claimants and stakeholders.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of the report entitled Reforming the Windrush Compensation Scheme published by Justice in 2021.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The victims of the Windrush scandal suffered terrible injustices, and this Government remains steadfast in our commitment to do everything in our power to right the wrongs. We are determined to ensure everyone who was affected receives every penny of the compensation to which they are entitled. We are making significant progress towards achieving this aim, and we have now paid or offered more than £72.5 million in compensation.
Since its launch, the Home Office has continued to listen and respond to feedback from affected communities and stakeholders about how the Scheme operates and its accessibility. The changes we made to the Scheme in December 2020 and August 2022, mean people receive significantly more money more quickly. Last year we published redesigned claim forms and refreshed casework guidance, with the aim of reducing the time taken to process claims and improving individuals’ experiences of applying to the Scheme. We also made changes to the Homelessness category and created a new category, ‘Living Costs’, to compensate close family members for certain contributions to a primary claimant’s living costs. These significant and positive policy changes were made following consultation with claimants and stakeholders.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to allocate additional funds to the Windrush Compensation Scheme; and if she will make a statement to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush in Britain.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Scheme has reached its public commitment of deploying 154 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Executive Office (EO) Decision Makers by Quarter 2 2023. The Scheme also continues to run ongoing recruitment campaigns to ensure the necessary level of staffing is maintained and has continued to backfill those who leave.
As set out by the Home Secretary at the Windrush Working Group Meeting on 24 January 2023, additional experienced EO decision makers have also been deployed on a temporary basis to assist with accelerating decision making; these staff are in addition to meeting the public commitment to post 154 substantive EO decision makers recruited.
Regarding allocating additional funds to the Windrush Compensation Scheme, there is no cap on the amount of compensation the Scheme will pay out. The Government is determined to right the wrongs for affected members of the Windrush generation and will ensure that all funding requirements are met.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to increase the number of full time equivalent staff working on processing Windrush Compensation Scheme claims.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Scheme has reached its public commitment of deploying 154 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Executive Office (EO) Decision Makers by Quarter 2 2023. The Scheme also continues to run ongoing recruitment campaigns to ensure the necessary level of staffing is maintained and has continued to backfill those who leave.
As set out by the Home Secretary at the Windrush Working Group Meeting on 24 January 2023, additional experienced EO decision makers have also been deployed on a temporary basis to assist with accelerating decision making; these staff are in addition to meeting the public commitment to post 154 substantive EO decision makers recruited.
Regarding allocating additional funds to the Windrush Compensation Scheme, there is no cap on the amount of compensation the Scheme will pay out. The Government is determined to right the wrongs for affected members of the Windrush generation and will ensure that all funding requirements are met.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much and what proportion of the total budget for the Windrush compensation scheme has been allocated.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
There is no cap on the amount of compensation the Windrush Compensation Scheme will pay out. The Government is determined to right the wrongs for affected members of the Windrush generation and will ensure that all funding requirements are met.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time civil servants above Grade 7 have worked on the Windrush compensation scheme in each financial quarter since the scheme was established.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not hold this data in a reportable format.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the average time taken to complete an application for the Windrush compensation scheme in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office has no published data to answer this question and the information is not readily available in a reportable format.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many claims for compensation under the Windrush compensation scheme have been awarded as of 15 June 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Information relating to the number of claims that have been paid compensation through the Windrush Compensation Scheme is included in Windrush Compensation Scheme Transparency Data, together with the Windrush Schemes Fact Sheet, both of which are published regularly.
The latest Transparency data for the Compensation Scheme was published on 1 June 2023, which covers the period up to the end of April 2023. Data covering the period of May 2023 up to 15 June 2023 has not been published yet.
The requested information can be found on Tab WCS_03 Windrush Compensation Scheme data: April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The latest Windrush Schemes factsheet is available here: Windrush Schemes Factsheet – April 2023 - Home Office in the media (blog.gov.uk)
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the number of people who are eligible for compensation under the Windrush compensation scheme.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A revised assessment has been completed using operational data up to the 1st of April 2023, updated assumptions and the same methodology as previous assessments. This assessment will be announced in an upcoming impact assessment, which is currently being finalised.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applicants for compensation under the Windrush compensation scheme have died while waiting for a decision on their application.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Windrush Compensation Scheme staff are working hard to ensure cases are prioritised for claimants with critical or life-limiting illnesses.
In the unfortunate circumstances where a claimant has passed away after submitting a compensation claim, before the claim is fully resolved, the team continues to work closely with the appointed representative, usually members of the family, to ensure the compensation payment is made as quickly as possible to the family member.
At the end of April 2023, in line with the latest published Transparency data, out of the 6,122 claims received by the Windrush Compensation Scheme, we are aware of 41 claimants who have unfortunately passed away after having submitted a claim.
Please note that this data is manually recorded and is reliant on the person receiving the information on a claimant’s death, notifying the Windrush Compensation Scheme to record this information.