Independent report

Third Independent Person report on the Windrush Compensation Scheme: how the Home Office is doing on international engagement, a Jamaica perspective

Updated 1 November 2023

Summary

As a continuation of overseas outreach activities in November 2022, the Home Office, with the assistance of the British High Commission (FCO) in Jamaica, began several public announcements through local radio and newspapers to inform individuals that might be residing in Jamaica because of the Windrush Scandal on how to apply for status and compensation.

From 22 May 2023 until 5 June 2023 the independent person undertook a qualitative evaluation visit to Jamaica to establish the effectiveness of Home Office’s communication surrounding Windrush Status and Windrush Compensation Scheme (WCS) and to ascertain the ease of access for potentially affected individuals.

It should be noted that all costs related to the visit were not at the expense of the public purse but were instead met directly by the independent person (IP). To further maintain impartiality and objectivity, the IP was accompanied by Dr Beverly Lindsay OBE OD DL, Chair of the Association of Jamaican Nationals (Birmingham) UK, who is a major Philanthropist to Jamaican Diaspora Affairs.

It is worthy of note that this type of programme visit was the first of its kind since the launch of the WCS in 2019. The programme visit comprised in-country public engagements, educational exchange, political engagements (cross party) and media engagements. The focus of the programme was to unpack any potential issues surrounding the schemes, to enable an opportunity to up-date on the evidential progress of the schemes and to determine the channels by which potential affected individuals were obtaining their information.

Programme visit methodology: Ask, Listen, and make recommendations to the Home Secretary.

Summary recommendations

1. The Home Office may want to consider providing regular updates on the scheme’s progress, such as transparency data, relevant to British High Commissions without the need for them to request such information.

2. Home Office with FCO support should accept the offer from the Jamaican Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Ministry given to the IP on his visit to enable better access to their diasporas via their different communication and social media platforms within Jamaica and the UK. It is worthy of note that Commonwealth Countries’ Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Departments are best placed to know what and where their diasporas are residing and act as a credible and trusted channel to facilitate information distribution and advice linkages.

3. Whilst there has been significant amount of reporting and information on the Schemes, there remains the need for a more consistent level of reassurance from the Home Office to remove fears and doubts. It is a welcome response to potential claimants in Jamaica to have access to the Home Office via a local land number (+1 (876) 733 5302), however the number is not widely known so greater effort should be used to promote this number.

4. The Home Office should in consort with trusted third parties develop a continuous communication stream. Articles placed in the local newspapers have demonstrated a better enrichment of knowledge to individuals and this has begun to demystify and make clear the purpose and how each scheme can be accessed. Cross linking Home Office’s transparency data to trusted third parties’ social media platforms will improve education and heighten reassurance.

5. The British High Commissioner (HC) in Jamaica (the IP suspect the same elsewhere) is keen to assist the Home Office in promoting the Windrush Status and Windrush Compensation Schemes in-country, however there is a clear lack of resources or manpower to undertake the task on a consistently sustainable basis. The Home Office should consider how best it can provide dedicated in-country resources to HCs.

I extend my thanks and gratitude for the honest, open, and proactive support and commitment received from Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson-Smith, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; Mr Mark Golding, Leader of the Opposition Party; Mr Denzil Thorpe, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport; Rev. Kenneth Fuller, President of the National Association of Returned Citizens (NARC); Dr Hilary Robertson-Hickling of University of the West Indies; and Ms Betsy Davis. A special thank you to Mrs Judith Slater British High Commissioner and her team in supporting the visit.

Context for the visit

On 21 April 2020 Hansard Volume 803 reported that the noble Lord Newby stated “what efforts has the Home Office made to publicise the scheme to those currently living in the Caribbean? What support will they get in completing their applications?”

On 8 June 2020 the Windrush Compensation Scheme (Expenditure) Act 2020 received Royal Assent and became law. The Act provides for the payment out of money provided by Parliament of expenditure incurred by the Secretary of State or a government department under, or in connection with, the Windrush Compensation Scheme (WCS) .

The WCS means the scheme published by the Home Office on 3 April 2019 which provides compensation for certain categories of persons in recognition of difficulties arising out of an inability to demonstrate lawful immigration status (as that scheme is modified from time to time)^{[footnote 1]}.

The Home Office Windrush Engagement Team has previously engaged with British High Commissioners (BHCs) overseas from both the Caribbean and wider Commonwealth communities, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ghana and Nigeria, to deliver bespoke staff and public awareness sessions to promote the Windrush Scheme and the Windrush Compensation Scheme overseas.

A modest 2-phased media campaign was undertaken in Jamaica between October 2022 and March 2023:

Phase 1 - in October and November 2022, the Jamaican Observer newspaper published one advert each week over a 2-week period, and Nationwide Radio ran adverts for one week (Monday to Friday).

Phase 2 - the Jamaican Gleaner newspaper published one advert each week over a 3-week period in February 2023, and Radio Jamaica ran adverts for one Week March (6 to 10 March) 2023.

The aim and objective of the independent person’s visit to Jamaica were:

1) to gauge opinion on how the scheme has been received in Jamaica

2) to establish, if any, what short comings there may be in the delivery

Independent person’s primary findings

The nature of the visit to Jamaica follows on the back of the independent person’s second report^{[footnote 2]} and sought to establish how well mapped the Home Office was on meeting objectives 3 and 6 of their intentions.

Note:

• Objective 3: The scheme should be quick and easy to navigate for claimants, with assistance available for claimants to make their claims. The onus should be on those operating the scheme, once having received consent from the claimant, to support the collecting of evidence from other public bodies or government departments in the first instance.

• Objective 6: Scheme achieves maximum support and advocacy from external (and internal) stakeholder groups, through consultation on design and transparency of operation.

Findings:

1. Individuals in Jamaica can submit a claim. Forms and guidance are available online at: Windrush Compensation Scheme: claim forms and guidance - GOV.UK

2. There is an open document version of the form available which can be completed digitally. Alternatively, the form can be printed and completed by hand.

3. Manually completed forms can be scanned and sent by email to: WindrushCompensationScheme@homeoffice.gov.uk; or sent by post to: PO Box 3468, Sheffield S3 8WA, United Kingdom.

4. A 2-phased media campaign was undertaken in Jamaica between October 2022 and March 2023 as part of an ongoing items of activities:

• Phase 1: In October and November 2022, the Jamaican Observer newspaper published one advert each week over a 2-week period, and Radio Jamaica ran adverts for one week (Monday to Friday).

• Phase 2: The Jamaican Gleaner newspaper published one advert each week over a 3-week period in February 2023, and Radio Jamaica ran adverts for one Week March (6 to 10 March) 2023.

5. There was a higher than usual number of claim applications from Jamaica in November and December 2022, and January 2023.

6. A dedicated local landline has been established (+1 (876) 733 5302) to connect claimants to an independent specialist organisation – ‘We Are Digital’ (WAD), to provide support to claimants to complete a claim form.

7. The published data shows that the compensation scheme has received 159 claims from residents in Jamaica, including primary, close family member and estates claims, as of end of June 2023^{[footnote 3]}. The scheme had received a total of 453 claims, again including primary, close family member and estates claims, from claimants who stated their nationality as Jamaican.

8. The position of both schemes is to ensure no one is prevented from making a claim if they are eligible, or because the Home Office has received more claims than they had planned for. The Home Secretary has reconfirmed that the end date for the Windrush Compensation Scheme had been removed.

9.There is a strong commitment and willingness by the Jamaican government to support the Home Office to identify any persons that are eligible to come forward to make a claim^{[footnote 4]}.

10. Better intra-government communication alignment and focus resources would improve reassurance of the schemes.

Independent person’s secondary findings

1. The number of Jamaicans/people from the Caribbean who have been granted some form of status since the start of the scheme to date^{[footnote 5]}.

2022 Q4

Nationality	NTL/ILR (Interim)	Brit Cit (Scheme)	NTL/ILR (Scheme)
Antigua and Barbuda	4	29	1
Aruba	0	4	1
Bahamas	1	3	1
Barbados	71	477	42
Curacao	0	1	2
Dominica	16	148	16
Dominican Republic	1	7	0
Grenada	15	209	16
Guadeloupe	0	3	0
Guyana	24	127	28
Jamaica	351	2,653	379
St Christopher & Nevis	0	6	0
St Kitts and Nevis	11	52	1
St Vincent & the Grenadines	24	172	22
St. Lucia	21	194	34
Trinidad and Tobago	27	208	48

2. At the invitation of the British High Commission the IP had the opportunity to meet and hear from The National Association of Returned Citizens (NARC), the NARC is made up of 14 association volunteer members from across the Island. Opportunity was given for attendees to express their views and for the IP to gain an insight of their understanding of Windrush Compensation Scheme, the take aways were as follows:

• not fully aware of Windrush issues and feels the sentiment is shared with other returnees; not aware of any presentation on the matter locally
• not taken time to research, have only heard snippets from friends/family from London
• not sure of entitlements available and would like to find out where we stand as returnees
• surprised the catchment date goes up to 1973; had seen petitions but not entirely sure what it was about
• would not have heard about it unless they went looking for news
• have seen postings online about it; radio shows in London at the time advised us to get our papers regularised and in order
• feels like it is raising people’s expectations on compensation and the paperwork looks complicated
• information that has been released to the public has been vague; like naturalisation, there is an ambiguity
• excessive burden placed on applicant – finding records may be difficult
• ill-advised for lawyers to be involved as some will take 30% of settlement
• still need a good information of who is entitled and who is not – case studies would be useful

Conclusion

3. For any apology to be effective it needs to meet the 3Rs criteria: namely regret, react and reassure. The government has publicly made it known how it regrets the circumstances that resulted in the Windrush Scandal. Its agencies and that particularly of the Home Office have reacted by establishing the Windrush Status and Windrush Compensation Schemes, which Parliament unanimously passed in the Windrush Compensation (Expenditure) Act 202. Thus, the making of financial restitution is enshrined in law, and currently stands at £77 million being offered or paid as at the end of June 2023.

4. It is the final R that will require the Home Office to apply more focus and relationship mapping; this will take time, patience and a consistent approach to communication to enable confidence in potential claimants.

5. The opinion of the IP is that the Home Office should look not only to re-enforce its current international outreach but to replicate the activities and relationships demonstrated in Jamaica across other Commonwealth territories where it is feasible to do so. Structured investment in this area will significantly improve how the Home Office can satisfactorily achieve its objectives 3 and 6 in a measurable manner.

1. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/8/section/1 ↩

2. [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-person-report-on-the-windrush-compensation-](Second Independent Person report on the Windrush Compensation Scheme: oversight and performance one year on - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ↩

3. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-compensation-scheme-data-march-2023 ↩

4. https://jis.gov.jm/govt-committed-to-ensuring-rights-of-windrush-generation-are-protected-minister- ↩

5. (Windrush Taskforce Data) for Quarter 4 2022, published on 23 February 2023 - Windrush Task Force Data: Q4 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ↩