Damning verdict of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review

Wendy Williams’ ‘Windrush Lessons Learned Review’, which was published on 19th March 2020, gives a damning verdict on the Home Office's handling of Windrush generation immigrants and their descendants. Among the thirty recommendations which are grouped under highly critical subheadings like ‘Go further to right the wrongs’; ‘Assess and limit the impact of the hostile environment on the Windrush generation’ and ‘Tell the stories of empire, Windrush and their legacy’, are those challenging the Home Office to ‘Clarify the department’s purpose, mission and values’ and ‘Develop a learning culture’.

The recommendations include the need to teach Black history; establish a strategic race advisory board and for the Home Office to review its diversity and inclusion and unconscious bias awareness training:

Recommendation 6 - "The Home Office should devise, implement and review a comprehensive learning and development programme which makes sure all its existing and new staff learn about the history of the UK and its relationship with the rest of the world, including Britain’s colonial history, the history of inward and outward migration and the history of black Britons."

Recommendation 27 - "The department should establish an overarching strategic race advisory board, chaired by the Permanent Secretary, with external experts including in relation to immigration and representation to inform policy-making and improve organisational practice. "

Recommendation 29 – “The department should: a) review its diversity and inclusion and unconscious bias awareness training.”

"The review makes absolutely clear that the Windrush scandal was not an accident, but the inevitable result of policies designed to make life impossible for those without the right papers. 

This, coupled with decades of immigration legislation explicitly aimed at reducing non-white immigration from the Commonwealth, destroyed the lives of many black and minority ethnic British people." said The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)

"Nothing can truly atone for what happened to the Windrush victims. But just as the scandal marked a turning point in public understanding of what the negative obsession with immigration has caused, so this Review must mark a turning point in Government attitudes towards immigration, if Britain is to believe in its own capacity for humanity, decency and fairness."

Click here to read the full JCWI Briefing about the Windrush Lessons Learned Review.

Background to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review

Following media reports of people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and, in at least 83 cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office and an unknown number who lost their jobs or homes, or were denied benefits or medical care to which they were entitled - the Windrush Scandal - The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary pledged to support those of the Windrush generation who have faced difficulties in establishing their status under the immigration system.

On the 2 May 2018, The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced a lessons learned review to make sure crucial lessons were identified and learned as quickly as possible, to prevent something like this happening again. He appointed Wendy Williams on 22 June 2018 to be the Independent Adviser to the review. She was responsible for making sure it was conducted credibly and robustly. The terms of reference and methodology for the lessons learned review were published in Parliament on 19th July 2018.

Wendy Williams drew together a small panel of experts to help inform the review’s focus and approach. The Independent Advisory Group met regularly during the review bringing a diverse range of perspectives, experience and specialist expertise across a range of areas including immigration law, leading public bodies and equality, diversity and inclusion.

The Windrush Lessons Learned Review Advisory Group comprised Dame Ursula Brennan, a retired civil servant and a former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice; Professor Dame Sandra Dawson, Professor Emerita of management studies and former director (1995 to 2006) of Judge Business School University of Cambridge and fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge; James Hanratty RD, who was previously an Immigration Judge for 17 years dealing with the full range of immigration appeals, including asylum and deportation applications, and is a former President of the Council of Immigration Judges; Sir Peter Housden, former Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire County Council; Dr Omar Khan, Director at the Runnymede Trust; Loraine Martins MBE, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Network Rail; Dr Mike Phillips, co-author of the ‘Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998)’ to accompany a BBC television series and co-director of the European cultural consultancy and publisher, Profusion; Seamus Taylor CBE, a lecturer in Social Policy at Maynooth University, Ireland and Jacqueline McKenzie, immigration advisor and a solicitor in England and Wales.

The report which was laid before Parliament on 19 March 2020. Click to download a copy of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review by Wendy Williams.

About Wendy Williams

Wendy Williams, a solicitor, was a partner in a defence firm before joining Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI). In 2003 she joined the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as the Legal Director of the CPS London North Region before becoming the Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP) for CPS Northumbria and the North East region in 2009.

In March 2015 Wendy took up the position of Her Majesty’s Inspector at HMIC (now HMICFRS) and has responsibility for 13 forces covering the Midlands, Wales and SouthWest areas. In July 2017 her role was extended to include the inspection of fire and rescue services across 11 areas in the Western region. She also has responsibility for the monitoring process for forces within HMICFRS.

Wendy is the Senior Responsible Officer for HMICFRS’s Criminal Justice and Joint Inspection portfolio, which involves working with other criminal justice inspectorates such as HM Inspectorate of Probation, HMCPSI, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission and the equivalent Welsh inspectorates across a range of criminal justice issues.

In 2018, Wendy was appointed by the Home Office to lead the Windrush lessons learned review, alongside her HMICFRS responsibilities.