Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 29 April 2021 to Question 187268 on Immigration: EU Nationals, which of the following bodies have the capability to conduct system to system checks of immigration status: (a) NHS Scotland, (b) Health and Social Care (HSC) in Northern Ireland, (c) the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland, (d) the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and v(e) local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland.

The Department for Communities in Northern Ireland (d) and Local Authorities in England, Wales and Scotland (e) administering benefits on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions are able to conduct system to system checks. The process was established as part of the deployment of an Application Programming Interface (API) to the Department for Work and Pensions.

NHS Scotland (a), Health and Social Care (HSC) in Northern Ireland (b) and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (e) do not have the capability to conduct system to system checks.

Work is underway to expand the Recourse to Public Funds API to Local Authorities who are members of the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) Connect network.

We would be pleased to work with any government department, agency or public body to implement similar checking services to support their statutory duties. Those organisations who do not wish to establish APIs will be able to use the Home Office’s online status services to confirm an EU national’s immigration status.