Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to update the travel advice to Sri Lanka to reflect the security situation in that country.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The safety of British people is the main factor when determining our travel advice for all countries, including Sri Lanka. Our advice is designed to help British people make informed decisions about foreign travel and remains under constant review to ensure it reflects our latest assessment of risks when travelling abroad. Our travel advice is based on objective assessments of the risks to British nationals. These assessments are made by drawing on expert sources of information available to the government including local knowledge from our embassies and information provided by the local authorities in each country. We will continue to keep Sri Lanka travel advice under close review.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they anticipate having paid compensation in full to claimants of the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Windrush Compensation Scheme is determined to ensure everyone who was affected receives every penny of the compensation to which they are entitled at the earliest point possible. The Scheme is making significant progress towards achieving this aim and has paid over £80 million in compensation as of January 2024. However, each person’s claim is deeply personal and deserves to be processed with the utmost care and sensitivity. This holistic approach necessarily takes time but is ultimately beneficial to individuals.
The Scheme does not therefore, impose time limit targets for concluding claims.
The Scheme has reduced the time to allocate a claim for a substantive casework consideration, from 18 months to under 4 months. The 4-month period includes all essential eligibility checks, together with a Preliminary Assessment to make an initial payment of £10,000 wherever possible. The Scheme has no end date so that people are not prevented from claiming compensation and there is no cap on the amount of compensation that will be paid overall.