Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 51
51
Deferred
Establish firewall between police and Home Office to prevent data sharing against migrant victims.
Conclusion
We restate the previous Home Affairs Committee’s recommendation from its 2018 report into Domestic Abuse, that “immigration status must not bar victims of abuse from protection and access to justice.” We concur with the Women and Equalities Committee’s recommendation that the Government “establish an appropriate firewall- type mechanism between the police and the Home Office to prevent data sharing for the purposes of enforcing immigration rules against victims of abuse.” As that Committee 66 Policing priorities said, any information sharing from the police with Immigration Enforcement on victims should only be in exceptional circumstances for the purposes of assisting in the safeguarding of the individual or acting against their abuser. (Paragraph 124) Prioritising roles and functions
Government response summary AI-generated
The government details reforms introduced by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 to simplify Out of Court Disposals to two types, noting it is too early to assess their impact on justice, but does not address the recommendation on immigration status for victims of abuse or a data-sharing firewall.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
67. Following a Review into data sharing arrangements between police and Immigration Enforcement, published in December 2021, it was concluded that a ‘firewall’ is not an appropriate solution. 68. A firewall would not prevent the perpetrator, or any anonymous third party, informing Immigration Enforcement about the victim’s immigration status. Stopping information sharing can impact law enforcement agencies’ ability to support victims and remove the perpetrator’s ability to control and manipulate victims because of their immigration status. 69. A firewall will not provide migrant victims of crime with assurances that no immigration enforcement action would be taken whilst reported crime was being investigated and whilst they were receiving support to seek to regularise their status. This assurance would be contained within the Migrant Victims Protocol. 70. The NPCC guidance ‘Information sharing with the Home Office where a victim or witness of crime is a suspected immigration offender’ already sets out under what circumstances police should share information with Immigration Enforcement and specifies that when someone reports a crime, the police must always, first and foremost, treat them as a victim, and that police must never check a database solely to establish a victim’s immigration status. 71. The NPCC guidance also sets out that when an individual reports as a victim of crime, the focus should always be to investigate the allegation and put in place reasonable measures to protect the victim from harm. It refers officers to the College of Policing’s guidance on initiating support and protection for victims of domestic abuse within the Major Investigations and Public Protection Authorised Professional Practice which guides officers to measures to protect the victim and signpost to local support services.
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