National Preventive Mechanism Eleventh Annual Report 2019–20 Windrush There were a series of further developments around the Windrush scandal. HM Inspector at HMICFRS, Wendy Williams, who had been asked by the then Home Secretary Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP to provide an independent assessment of the events leading up to the Windrush scandal and to identify the key lessons for the Home Office, published her report in March 2020.95 The report provided updates on the work of the Windrush Taskforce (a dedicated team working to resolve applications under the Scheme as quickly as possible) and the Windrush Historical Cases Review unit (established to examine the immigration records of 11,800 British residents of Caribbean Commonwealth nationality who were born before 1973 and who had been held in immigration detention or removed from the UK since 2002). The unit found that 122 members of the Windrush generation had been detained and 83 had faced removal, with 31 facing both removal and detention. A series of updates provided by the Home Office to the Home Affairs Committee illustrated that a backlog in cases which were yet to be considered by the Taskforce had reduced over the year but that in April 2020 there remained over 1,000 outstanding cases.96 95 96 97 98 34 Immigration detention during COVID-19 Proceedings for Judicial Review against the Home Office were issued on 18 March 2020 by the NGO Detention Action and an Estonian national subject to a deportation order. It challenged the lawfulness and safety of continued immigration detention during the COVID-19 pandemic (as many escort flights were cancelled, making detention in IRCs unlawful) and called for the release of all immigration detainees. While the case was dismissed by the High Court seven days later, the Home Office undertook to review the cases of all people detained.97 During the pandemic some 350 detainees were released on bail and there was a significant reduction in removals, with those to some countries suspended entirely.98 Wendy Williams, March 2020, Windrush Lessons Learned, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/874022/6.5577_HO_Windrush_Lessons_Learned_Review_WEB_v2.pdf [accessed 31/08/2020] The Independent, April 2020, Windrush scandal: More than 1,000 cases yet to be considered by Home Office, figures show, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/windrush-scandal-home-office-scheme-taskforceimmigration-a9489871.html [accessed 31/08/2020] Royal Courts of Justice, March 2020, Detention Action & Anor, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 732 (Admin), https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2020/732.html [accessed 31/08/2020] Detention Action, March 2020, Press Release: Over 350 released from immigration detention and all cases to be urgently reviewed, https://detentionaction.org.uk/2020/03/26/press-release-over-350-released-from-immigration-detention-andall-cases-to-be-urgently-reviewed/ [accessed 31/08/2020]