Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much his Department has spent on advertising the Windrush Compensation scheme.

The Home Office has a programme of engagement in place to promote the Windrush Compensation Scheme. We have a designated team tasked with engaging with communities. Our publicity efforts are targeted at potential claimants under the Scheme rather than a wider audience. We have issued press notices, offered articles to key diaspora publications and engaged in social media activity. We are also exploring targeted paid media to promote the scheme.

We are working with local councils, MPs, religious and community groups to raise awareness through a series of engagement events. 14 such events have taken place to date and more are planned. The events are publicised on Gov.UK and publicity material is made available to local authorities and representative bodies.

Targeted publicity is the most effective way of informing prospective Windrush claimants about the Scheme. In terms of direct spend on advertising, we do not readily have data on the total cost of all our activities to publicise the Compensation Scheme as this includes design and production of posters and wallet cards, radio advertisements and staff and travel costs associated with organising and
participating in events.