The Home Office Windrush Unit is to be re-established to oversee lasting cultural change across the department as a Windrush Commissioner will be appointed.
Victims of the Windrush scandal will be better supported to apply for compensation through a £1.5 million fund as the Home Secretary sets out a “fundamental reset” to the Windrush generation.
The Home Secretary has today set out the first steps the new government is taking to ensure justice is finally delivered for victims of the Windrush scandal. She will commit to working more closely with communities affected, and to appointing a new Windrush Commissioner to hold the government to account on the delivery of the recommendations in the Wendy Williams Lessons Learned Review. The Commissioner will act as a trusted voice for victims and Windrush communities and also champion improvements and lasting change.
In a written statement, Yvette Cooper has published details of £1.5million in government grant funding, which will be used to increase advocacy support for victims applying to the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
Within weeks of taking office, the Home Secretary re-established the Windrush Unit within the Home Office, to oversee its response to the scandal and embed lasting cultural change across the department, after it was disbanded under the previous government in July 2023.
These actions come as the Home Secretary later chairs a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders and sets out the government’s renewed commitment to work with them to achieve justice for victims. This follows a separate meeting the Home Secretary has had with Wendy Williams, to discuss her vision for a changed Home Office.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The Windrush scandal caused terrible pain and heartache for so many families in the Windrush generation and in wider Commonwealth communities. It is rightly recognised as a period of national shame.
“The hurt and anguish felt by so many has been compounded further for those who haven’t received the compensation and justice they are owed. The Windrush generation has been let down and we are committed to a fundamental reset of the response to this scandal.
“We are changing the government’s approach – working more closely with victims, stakeholders, and communities, as well as those affected by all the department’s work, to ensure a scandal of this kind can never happen again and dignity can be restored to those so tragically affected.”
The government is determined to hear first-hand from the Windrush generation, their families and wider commonwealth communities to ensure their experiences are listened to and learned from.
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