Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what personal data the Care Quality Commission is authorised to share with Home Office Immigration Enforcement.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) may lawfully share information, including personal data, with Home Office Immigration Enforcement where doing so is necessary for the exercise of the functions of either organisation and is in the overall public interest. Decisions on such disclosures are made on a case-by-case basis and the CQC’s primary consideration in making any disclosure is to protect and promote the health, safety and welfare of people who use the health and social care services it regulates.

In considering a request to disclose personal data, the CQC will take into account provisions under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, section 79, which sets out cases where the CQC may disclose information, data protection legislation, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the CQC’s Code of Practice on confidential personal information published in accordance with section 80 of the 2008 Act.

The CQC will not share personal data of people who use the services it regulates for immigration enforcement purposes other than in exceptional circumstances. Disclosure of personal data of people who use regulated services without the most significant justification is likely to be disproportionate and to damage trust in the confidentiality of health and social care service and in the CQC as a regulator. The CQC may share information and intelligence, including personal data of registered persons and their employees, where it has concerns that a care provider is employing people not legally entitled to work in the United Kingdom.