Wendy Williams was asked by the then Home Secretary to provide an independent assessment of the events leading up to the Windrush scandal (particularly from 2008 – March 2018) and to identify the key lessons for the Home Office.
The report identifies the organisational factors in the Home Office which created the operating environment in which these mistakes could be made, including a culture of disbelief and carelessness when dealing with applications, made worse by the status of the Windrush generation, who were failed when the needed help most.
The report recommends:
- Ministers on behalf of the department should admit that serious harm was inflicted on people who are British and provide an unqualified apology to those affected and to the wider black African-Caribbean community as soon as possible
- 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 will return to review the progress made in approximately 18 months’ time.
Read Runnymede Trust submission: Windrush Lessons Learned Review
