Part 7: Miscellaneous and general Section 81: Review of processing of victims’ personal data for immigration purposes
The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 permits the Home Office to share and receive information with law enforcement partners for the purpose of crime prevention, detection and effective immigration control. The immigration exemption (at paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to the Data Protection Act 2018) is one of a number of ‘exemptions’ under that Act (others include crime and taxation). The immigration exemption allows certain specified data subject rights under the General Data Protection Regulations to be restricted in certain limited circumstances (where full compliance would prejudice immigration control or the investigation or detection of activities that would undermine the maintenance of effective immigration control).
	Police forces across the United Kingdom share data with immigration enforcement on migrant victims of crime they encounter if they know or suspect that an immigration offence has occurred. On receipt of the referral, Immigration Officers use the information to confirm the migrants identify, immigration status and any known vulnerability and provide advice on addressing any safeguarding concerns.
	A super-complaint brought by Liberty and Southall Black Sisters in December 2018 was investigated by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services’ ("HMICFRS") who published their findings in December 2020. The super-complaint asserted that data-sharing practices deterred migrant victims, with insecure immigration status, from reporting crimes to the police for fear of immigration enforcement action being taken against them.
	HMICFRS made eight recommendations: five for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, two for the Home Office and one shared recommendation. Recommendation two asks the Home Office to review the legal and policy framework underpinning data sharing and specifically asks the Home Office to consider the mechanism of establishing a firewall and to identify the correct basis on which any proposed firewall should be implemented.
	Section 81 puts the data sharing review onto a statutory footing and places a duty on the Secretary of State to lay a report before Parliament on the outcome of the review by 30 June 2021. The Secretary of State may by regulations extend the relevant period by a further period of up to six months.