Reforming the Windrush Compensation Scheme |

In 2018, news of the Windrush scandal reached the public domain, when it emerged that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens had been detained, deported and denied legal rights after wrongly being classified as illegal and/or undocumented immigrants under the Home Office’s “hostile environment”.

Hundreds of individuals were placed in immigration detention, lost their jobs and homes and were threatened with removal, with many others deported to countries they hadn’t resided in since childhood.

The challenge

The Windrush Compensation Scheme was launched in April 2019 by the Home Office to compensate members of the Windrush generation and their families for the losses and hardships they suffered as a result of not being able to demonstrate their lawful immigration status. When the scheme was set up the Home Office estimated that 15,000 people would be eligible for compensation. As at the end of August 2021 only 837 people have received payments.

A Windrush Working Group was set up in March 2021. Chaired by Robert Thomas, Professor of Law at Manchester University, the group aims to ensure that people claiming compensation have their claims adjudicated fairly, accurately and in a timely manner; and that the complaints process is efficient, accessible and fair. Members include pro bono lawyers and advisors, the Independent Adjudicator, the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman, the Independent Advisor to the scheme, academics, claimants with ‘lived experience’ and and Dechert LLP.

The Working Party

Members of the Working Party
Chair: Professor Robert Thomas, Professor of Public Law at the University of Manchester
Rob Behrens, Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman
Nicola Burgess, Legal Director, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
Tim Bowden, Partner, Dechert LLP
Glenda Caesar, Claimant and member of Windrush Lives
Professor Naomi Creutzfeldt, Professor in Socio-Legal Studies, Westminster University
Marion Edge, Pro Bono Counsel, Dechert LLP
Martin Forde QC, the former Independent Advisor to the Scheme
Christian Hayibor, Claimant and member of Windrush Lives
Bishop Desmond Jaddoo, Windrush National Organisation
Franck Kiangala, Director, North Kensington Law Centre
Caroline Lawless, Windrush Policy, Home Office (Observer)
Helen Megarry, the Independent Adjudicator to the Scheme
Jacqueline McKenzie, Partner, Leigh Day
Ravi Nayer, Partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP
Sibon Phiri, United Legal Access
Anna Steiner, Solicitor and Senior Lecturer, Westminster University and Windrush Justice Clinic
Heidi Bancroft, JUSTICE

Reforming the Windrush Compensation Scheme was generously supported by Dechert LLP.