Windrush adviser criticises Home Office handling of payout scheme

Martin Forde says call for light-touch approach was ignored and some awards were too low

The architect of the Windrush compensation scheme has described how the Home Office ignored key aspects of his advice on its implementation and said some payments should be more generous", during a Commons hearing into problems with the programme.

The barrister Martin Forde said he had urged the Home Office to take a light-touch" approach to the amount of documentary evidence that claimants were required to produce in order to corroborate their compensation claims, and acknowledged that this light touch had not materialised.