Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of findings by Human Rights Watch that human rights are being violated as a result of the failure to implement an effective compensation scheme under the Windrush Compensation Scheme.

We do not accept the Human Rights Watch assessment of the Windrush Compensation Scheme nor that human rights are being violated in the way it is operated. We remain absolutely committed to righting the wrongs of Windrush. The latest Windrush Compensation Scheme statistics show that £57.13m had been paid out by the end of February 2023 across 1,520 claims. A further £11.13m has been offered, awaiting acceptance, or pending review, taking the total amount paid or offered to £68.27m. In addition, over 60% of claims have received a final decision.

We have engaged with Human Rights Watch in response to their report and will continue to work with them to discuss their findings. We are making good progress towards the vast majority of recommendations from Wendy Williams’ report and believe there are more meaningful ways of achieving the intent of a very small number of others.

Through this work, we will make sure that similar injustices can never be repeated and are creating a Home Office worthy of every community it serves.

The Home Secretary continues to co-host Windrush Working Group meetings to discuss how we can work together to drive further improvements.