Guidance

Windrush Lessons Learned Review progress update: call for evidence

Updated 21 October 2021

Introduction

On the 2 May 2018, the then Home Secretary announced a lessons learned review as part of a series of measures he was leading across the Home Office, to support those of the Windrush generation who had faced difficulties in establishing their status under the immigration system. On 22 June 2018, the Home Secretary appointed Wendy Williams to be the Independent Adviser to the review.

In March 2020, the Independent Adviser published her Windrush Lessons Learned Review report. In it, she describes the chain of events that led to what became known as the “Windrush scandal”. Members of the Windrush Generation – a group of British people, mostly from Caribbean countries who moved to the UK between 1948 and 1973 – were ‘forced into crisis because the government didn’t accept their legal right to live in the UK’. As a result, they ‘felt the force of immigration enforcement measures.’

The Independent Adviser reviewed the causes of the scandal, and the Department’s response to it. Her findings led the Independent Adviser to make 30 recommendations to try to avoid something similar ever happening again. Following the publication of the report, the Home Secretary apologised on behalf of the Department to members of the Windrush generation who were affected and accepted all 30 of the Independent Adviser’s recommendations in full.

Recommendation 2 of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review was that:

the Department should publish a comprehensive improvement plan within six months of this report, which takes account of all its recommendations, on the assumption that I [the Independent Adviser] will return to review the progress made in approximately 18 months’ time.

The Home Office published its Windrush Lessons Learned Review response: comprehensive improvement plan in September 2020, setting out how it intended to implement the Independent Adviser’s recommendations, including righting the wrongs of the scandal and a focus on ‘wholesale and lasting cultural change’.

The Independent Adviser has returned to the Department 18 months on from the publication of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, to assess the Department’s progress in implementing the 30 recommendations set out in her report. The Windrush Lessons Learned Review progress update: terms of reference includes some questions that the revisit seeks to answer.

The Independent Adviser would like to hear from as many people as possible who can offer insight into the progress the Department has made at implementing both the letter and spirit of her recommendations, hence launching this call for evidence.

Who is this call for evidence for?

This call for evidence is aimed at any persons who have interacted with the Home Office either as an individual, or as part of an organisation that has worked or engaged with the Department in some way over the last 18 months, including (but not limited to):

• individuals or organisations affected by the Windrush scandal, directly or indirectly
• civil society organisations
• immigration lawyers
• advice organisations
• employers
• landlords
• local authorities
• charities
• think tanks
• academics
• other interested organisations

About the call for evidence

This call for evidence was issued on 21 October 2021 and will run until 21 November 2021.

The information you give us will be analysed alongside departmental information to help the Independent Adviser answer the questions set out in the progress update’s terms of reference.

How to send your responses

There are two ways in which you can respond to the call. You can do this by either:

1. completing the online survey; or
2. sending your written comments by email.

1. Completing the online survey

You do not need to send written comments by email if you choose to complete the online survey. You can access the online survey by clicking on this link:

https://www.homeofficesurveys.homeoffice.gov.uk/s/UJCJVX/

We will also consider any additional information (for example, reports and previous correspondence) that you feel is relevant to answering the survey questions. You will have an opportunity to upload these at the end of the survey.

2. Sending written comments by email

You do not need to complete the online survey if you choose to send written comments by email.

We want to hear your thoughts and experiences on these questions. In your response to each question, please be as concise as possible:

1. The Home Office’s Comprehensive Improvement Plan (September 2020), published in response to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, sets out the ambition of building a ‘fairer, more compassionate Home Office’ that puts people first and sees the ‘face behind the case’. Do you think the Home Office has made progress towards this ambition?

2. Based on your experience, how well is the Home Office doing in terms of each of the below:

i. Righting the wrongs and learning from the past? By this, the Department means being open minded and willing to acknowledge, explore and put right mistakes, including using that learning to inform future work.

ii. Demonstrating ‘a more compassionate approach’? By this, the Department means putting people first and taking proper account of the complexity of citizens’ lives, in order to make the right decisions.

iii. Demonstrating more ‘inclusive and rigorous policymaking’? By this, the Department means putting in place systems and support to enable staff at all levels to make, evaluate and improve evidence-based policy that is thorough, rigorous, and promotes equality.

iv. Demonstrating greater ‘openness to scrutiny’? By this, the Department means becoming more outward facing and listening to, and acting on, views of and challenges from both staff and external stakeholders.

3. The Windrush Lessons Learned Review said that wider cultural and systemic change was needed to ensure that nothing like the Windrush scandal ever happens again. To what extent do you think the Home Office’s culture has changed?

4. Thinking about the areas in this call for evidence, is there anything else you want to say that hasn’t already been covered?

Please email responses to wllr-revisit@homeoffice.gov.uk.

We will also consider any additional information (for example, reports and previous correspondence) that you feel is relevant to answering the questions above. Please attach these to your email.

Deadline for responses

The call for evidence closes at 11.59pm on 21 November 2021.

Confidentiality of your responses

Information you give in response to consultations may be subject to publication or disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

The Home Office will only process any personal data it receives as part of this consultation (for example, any identifying material) according to data protection law. This means your personal data will only be used for the purpose of the call for evidence. It will not be disclosed to third parties unless the law requires it, and you will not be identifiable from any published reports.

If you want all, or any part, of a response to be treated as confidential, please explain why you consider it to be confidential.

If we receive a request for disclosure of the information you have given, we will take into account your explanation about why you consider it to be confidential. However, we can’t guarantee confidentiality.