Disclosure Scotland personal data sharing with the UK Home Office: FOI release

Information requested

1. Whether your agency has entered any formal agreements or memoranda of understanding (MOU) with the UK Home Office governing the circumstances in which you would share personal data of individuals for immigration enforcement? If so, please provide a copy of the agreement or MOU.

2. Whether your agency has an internal policy or guidelines outlining the duties of your agency regarding data sharing with the UK Home Office, and the processes for responding to a request from the UK Home Office to share personal data that you hold. If so, please share the policy document or guidelines.

3. Has your agency ever shared personal data of individuals with the UK Home Office? If so, please indicate the number of incidents, and whether data sharing occurred with or without individual consent, divided if possible into calendar or fiscal years?

4. Has your agency ever shared personal data of individuals with the UK Home Office for immigration purposes? If so, please indicate the number of incidents, and whether data sharing occurred with or without individual consent, divided if possible into calendar or fiscal years?

5. Has the Home Office ever requested data on an individual or on an individual’s immigration status, or about your work with specific groups of individuals, for immigration enforcement purposes. from your agency? If so:

a. How many times has the Home Office requested this type of information?

b. Have you complied with the requests? If so, how many times? If not, could you state the reasons?

c. Do you have a policy document or guidelines outlining your legal duties and the relevant process for responding to such requests (if different from the one requested above, please provide a copy of this document)?

d. Please share the document/file/email containing the request from the Home Office. If that is not possible, please state the type of information requested and any subsequent actions expected from your staff?

6. Have you discussed within the agency the possibility of a UK Home Office request for personal data of individuals for purposes of immigration enforcement, the duties of staff in sharing/providing data to such a UK Home Office request and/or complying with relevant requests? If so, please share the minutes, email correspondence, notes, documents or other relevant information linked to these discussions.

Response

1. Whether your agency has entered any formal agreements or memoranda of understanding (MOU) with the UK Home Office governing the circumstances in which you would share personal data of individuals for immigration enforcement? If so, please provide a copy of the agreement or MOU.

Disclosure Scotland holds no such agreement for the purposes of immigration enforcement.

2. Whether your agency has an internal policy or guidelines outlining the duties of your agency regarding data sharing with the UK Home Office, and the processes for responding to a request from the UK Home Office to share personal data that you hold. If so, please share the policy document or guidelines.

Disclosure Scotland holds no policy concerning requests from the UK Home Office specifically. All such requests obtained from the Home Office or any other relevant organisation are handled under Schedule 2 Part 1(2) of the DPA 2018. Any other information sharing is concerned with establishing identity under Part V of the Police Act 1997, in which Disclosure Scotland requests information from the UK Home Office.

3. Has your agency ever shared personal data of individuals with the UK Home Office? If so, please indicate the number of incidents, and whether data sharing occurred with or without individual consent, divided if possible into calendar or fiscal years?

Volume of requests made under Schedule 2 Part 1(2) of the DPA 2018 detailed below, none of which required consent.

Year	Volume
2018	3
2019	2
2020	0
2021*	2

*As of 25 May 2021

4. Has your agency ever shared personal data of individuals with the UK Home Office for immigration purposes? If so, please indicate the number of incidents, and whether data sharing occurred with or without individual consent, divided if possible into calendar or fiscal years?

Disclosure Scotland has not shared data for immigration purposes. As above, requests are made from the UK Home office only for the purposes of prevention and detection of crime, and from Disclosure Scotland to the Home Office to establish identity.

5. Has the Home Office ever requested data on an individual or on an individual’s immigration status, or about your work with specific groups of individuals, for immigration enforcement purposes. from your agency? If so:

Disclosure Scotland has received no requests for the purposes outlined above.

a. How many times has the Home Office requested this type of information?
N/A
b. Have you complied with the requests? If so, how many times? If not, could you state the reasons?
N/A
c. Do you have a policy document or guidelines outlining your legal duties and the relevant process for responding to such requests (if different from the one requested above, please provide a copy of this document)
N/A
d. Please share the document/file/email containing the request from the Home Office. If that is not possible, please state the type of information requested and any subsequent actions expected from your staff?
N/A

6. Have you discussed within the agency the possibility of a UK Home Office request for personal data of individuals for purposes of immigration enforcement, the duties of staff in sharing/providing data to such a UK Home Office request and/or complying with relevant requests? If so, please share the minutes, email correspondence, notes, documents or other relevant information linked to these discussions.

Disclosure Scotland holds no record of any such discussions regarding the possibility of UK Home Office requests for personal data of individuals for any of the purposes described above.

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