Independent review by Wendy Williams March 2020 HC 93 Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons dated 19 March 2020 for Windrush Lessons Learned Review Independent review by Wendy Williams Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 19 March 2020 HC 93 © Crown copyright 2020 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 Where we have identifed any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at www.gov.uk/offcial-documents Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at [email protected] ISBN 978-1-5286-1779-6 CCS 0220173690 03/20 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fbre content minimum. Printed in the UK by the APS Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Offce. CONTENTS Executive Summary 7 Introduction 8 PART 1 What happened, when, and to whom 22 PART 2 Why the scandal happened 48 PART 3 The department’s corrective measures 122 PART 4 Findings and recommendations 134 ANNEX A Terms of reference 154 ANNEX B Review methodology 158 ANNEX C Glossary of terms 166 ANNEX D The Independent Advisory Group 178 ANNEX E Call for evidence 180 ANNEX F Acknowledgements 182 ANNEX G Casefle review: the 164 186 ANNEX H Right to Rent case study 194 ANNEX I Corrective measures 246 ANNEX J Endnotes 266 Executive Summary EXECUTIVE SUMMARY I was asked by the then Home Secretary to A range of warning signs from inside and outside provide an independent assessment of the events the Home Offce were simply not heeded by leading up to the Windrush scandal (particularly offcials and ministers. Even when stories of from 2008 – March 2018) and to identify the key members of the Windrush generation being lessons for the Home Offce. In carrying out this affected by immigration control started to emerge work, I have interviewed those affected and their in the media from 2017 onwards, the department families and representatives. I have also had was too slow to react. access to departmental papers and have met with offcials and ministers, past and present, to ask The report identifes the organisational factors them about their recollections of the period. in the Home Offce which created the operating environment in which these mistakes could Members of the Windrush generation and their be made, including a culture of disbelief and children have been poorly served by this country. carelessness when dealing with applications, They had every right to be here and should made worse by the status of the Windrush never have been caught in the immigration net. generation, who were failed when they The many stories of injustice and hardship are needed help most. heartbreaking, with jobs lost, lives uprooted and untold damage done to so many individuals The lessons are for both ministers and offcials in and families. the Home Offce to learn. Ministers set the policy and the direction of travel and did not suffciently However, despite the scandal taking the Home question unintended consequences. Offcials Offce by surprise my report sets out that what could and should have done more to examine, happened to those affected by the Windrush consider and explain the impacts of decisions. scandal was foreseeable and avoidable. While I am unable to make a defnitive fnding of The causes of the Windrush scandal can be institutional racism within the department, I have traced back through successive rounds of policy serious concerns that these failings demonstrate and legislation about immigration and nationality an institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness from the 1960s onwards, the aim of which was towards the issue of race and the history of the to restrict the eligibility of certain groups to Windrush generation within the department, which live in the UK. are consistent with some elements of the defnition of institutional racism. The 1971 Immigration Act confrmed that the Windrush generation had, and have, the right of This report makes 30 recommendations for abode in the UK. But they were not given any change and improvement which can be boiled documents to demonstrate this status. Nor were down to three elements: the Home Offce must records kept. They had no reason to doubt their acknowledge the wrong which has been done; it status, or that they belonged in the UK. They could must open itself up to greater external scrutiny; not have been expected to know the complexity of and it must change its culture to recognise the law as it changed around them. that migration and wider Home Offce policy is about people and, whatever its objective, should But over time those in power forgot about them be rooted in humanity. I encourage the Home and their circumstances, which meant that when Secretary and the Home Offce to implement my successive governments wanted to demonstrate recommendations in full. that they were being tough on immigration by tightening immigration control and passing laws creating, and then expanding the hostile environment, this was done with a complete disregard for the Windrush generation. Windrush Lessons Learned Review | 7 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Wendy Williams, what they had been through. I was struck at the Independent Adviser same time by their dignity and calm, despite all that had happened; it was a humbling experience. In 2001, Nathaniel went on holiday to Jamaica with his daughter Veronica. Little did either of them know that Nathaniel would never see the UK About the Review again. When they set off to come home to the UK, The Home Offce established the Windrush immigration authorities told him he would not be Lessons Learned Review on 2 May 2018.1 allowed back into the country. The passport he I was appointed as Independent Adviser by had had for some 45 years, which declared him the then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, on a citizen of the UK and Colonies, was no longer 21 June.2 good enough, though it had been in 1985, when he last made the trip. And it had been in the mid- The review is asked to “identify the key lessons 1950s, when he arrived in the UK as a young man, for the Home Offce going forward”. The Home in common with thousands of other men, women Offce, as a major department of state, covers: and children, members of what we now know as • the Secretary of State, their Special the Windrush generation. Advisers and the Ministerial Team who Nine years after his holiday, Nathaniel died in head up the department, setting the Jamaica, unable to afford treatment for prostate political direction and priorities; cancer. He and Veronica had decided not to fght • the Permanent Secretary and the Senior the original decision against him. Instead, she had Civil Service who lead and manage the taken career breaks to look after him in Jamaica. department, advising ministers; Nathaniel’s story, and Veronica’s, are part of • civil servants at junior grades who perform what we have come to call the Windrush scandal. the vast majority of policy and operational The UK government, through what it did and did roles, developing and implementing policy not do, threw people into turmoil because it did proposals, and carrying out operational not recognise their legal right to be in the UK. It roles engaging with the public. prevented some, like Nathaniel, from coming back into the country from overseas. It removed and The issues that I identify in my report relate detained others. And through policies designed to to all three of those levels in the Home Offce, combat illegal migration, it denied people access and, similarly, lessons must be learned at to work, housing and services, even though they all levels. While the constitutional position were here lawfully and therefore lawfully entitled is that the Secretary of State for the Home to access them. Some lost their jobs, their homes, Department is accountable to Parliament and in many cases their sense of identity and well- for all the actions of their department, both being. Inevitably, their families also paid a price. ministers and offcials, this cannot be an excuse for those who work in the department Early in the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, not to ensure they also learn from the events of I was lucky enough to meet many of the people Windrush. Similarly, ministers are responsible affected, including Veronica. I heard how their for setting the direction of policy and I have experiences left them scared and scarred. I heard found no evidence that offcials were acting how bewildered they felt that institutions could beyond ministerial direction at any time. treat them so badly, and then compound this with insensitivity. As one person put it, “I can’t believe The review’s task was to investigate: I have been treated like this by my beloved • the key legislative, policy and operational England”. Many felt an attachment to the UK and decisions that led to members of the felt they had contributed to society, but had been Windrush generation becoming entangled treated unjustly despite this. Some also felt the in measures designed for illegal government had not understood or acknowledged immigrants 8 | Windrush Lessons Learned Review INTRODUCTION Part 1 shows who the scandal affected and how. It shows how it unfolded before and after it became • what other factors played a part public in April 2018 and describes the warning • why these issues were not identifed signs that emerged from both inside and outside sooner the Home Offce.