A NEW report says the Home Office’s hostile environment policy did not comply with equality law.

Caroline Walters, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “The treatment of the Windrush generation as a result of hostile environment policies was a shameful stain on British history.

“It is unacceptable that equality legislation…was effectively ignored.”

The equality law that the the Home Office did not follow is the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).

All public sector organisations are legally supposed to follow it. In broad terms, it should make sure they promote equality and do not discriminate against certain groups.

However, the commission said more public bodies should follow it consistently, and not just see it as a box-ticking exercise.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission says the Home Office showed a “general lack of commitment” to the duty’s importance.

According to the report, the Home Office repeatedly overlooked the consequences of hostile environment policies.

The commission also says Priti Patel’s Home Office did not engage with people from the Windrush Generation.

Often, equality was not considered early on enough when decisions were made.

The Home Office has now committed to entering an agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The agreement hopes to prevent such events taking place again.

This report follows the Windrush Lessons Learned review.

That review found that the experiences of the Windrush Generation were both ‘foreseeable and avoidable.’

But we already knew that.