Asked by: Lord Woolley of Woodford (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether highly skilled Tier 1 (general) migrants were notified of the sharing of their tax return data between Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the Home Office for visa decisions; and if so, how.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The following information is provided to potential applicants, before they chose to ‘apply now’. This outlines information may be shared with other public organisations in the UK:
How we use your data
The Home Office will use the personal information you provide to decide whether to grant your application. We may also share your information with other public and private sector organisations in the UK and overseas. For more detail please see the Privacy Notice for the Border, Immigration and Citizenship system. This also sets out your rights under the Data Protection Act 2018 and explains how you can access your personal information and complain if you have concerns about how we are using it.
In addition to this, where highly skilled Tier 1 (general) applications had been refused, individuals were notified their information had been shared via their refusal notice.
Those applications we are considering post Balajigari (and others) v the Secretary of State of April 2019, also have concerns put to them in a minded to refuse letter.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2021 to Question 174258 on Immigration: Disclosure of Information, if she will publish the (a) Partnership Agreement, (b) Data Usage Agreement and (c) any relevant Memorandum of Understanding between HMRC and her Department.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not routinely publish copies of its data sharing agreements or Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with other Government Departments or other bodies.
All Home Office data sharing activity is in line with the UK Data Protection and other relevant legislation and in line with government security guidance. When required and in line with the ICO code of practice on data sharing the Department will write and agree a data sharing agreement/MoU to regulate and govern this data sharing.
These agreements will vary depending on the type of data being shared, the purposes for which is being shared and who it is being shared with.
The Home Office has a large number of such agreements including the agreements referred to in this question, however these are not routinely published.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department took to establish mechanisms to receive tax return data of Highly Skilled Tier 1 (General) Migrants from HMRC for indefinite leave to remain decisions.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office and HMRC have an agreed sharing protocol.
Section 40 of the UK Borders Act 2007 provides a statutory gateway to allow HMRC to share data with the Home Office for immigration and nationality functions as set out in the legislation.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to provide Highly Skilled Tier 1 (General) migrant tax return data to HMRC for indefinite leave to remain decisions.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not provide tax return data to HMRC.
HMRC hold this data and provides it to the Home Office.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what agreements and safeguards there are in respect of the General Data Protection Regulation of using tax return data held by HMRC for informing immigration enforcement decisions.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Home Office and HMRC have a long-established relationship underpinned by a single Partnership Agreement. The Partnership Agreement sets out the framework under which HMRC and the Home Office work together. Sitting under this Partnership Agreement are a number of Memorandums of Understanding regarding the sharing of data for immigration enforcement purposes.
In accordance with such arrangements, the Home Office has policies and procedures in place to support fulfilling its data protection obligations when processing personal data.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provisions her Department has in place to (a) receive and (b) share tax return data with HMRC for immigration enforcement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Home Office and HMRC have a long-established relationship underpinned by a single Partnership Agreement. The Partnership Agreement sets out the framework under which HMRC and the Home Office work together. Sitting under this Partnership Agreement are a number of Memorandums of Understanding regarding the sharing of data for immigration enforcement purposes.
In accordance with such arrangements, the Home Office has policies and procedures in place to support fulfilling its data protection obligations when processing personal data.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to use data collected through the Windrush Compensation Scheme to make an assessment of the revenue lost from taxation as a result of prohibiting undocumented migrants from taking up employment.
Answered by Priti Patel
None. The data collected through the Windrush Compensation Scheme relate to people who have status in the UK with the right to work rather than undocumented migrants without status.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to respond to concerns raised by the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association in their briefing published on 26 October on the draft Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2018, and its conclusion that the Order will (1) be detrimental to the NHS, and (2) constitute a discriminatory form of repeated taxation on migrants.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Government does not agree with conclusions set out in the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA) briefing document of 26 October and has published a full impact assessment on the potential impact of increasing the immigration health surcharge.
The impact assessment can be read at this link: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2018/9780111172995/impacts
The surcharge is intended to represent a fair and proportionate financial contribution to the NHS by migrants, commensurate with their temporary immigration status.
Temporary migrants will not have built up the long-term relationship and contribution to the UK that a permanent resident has built up, and will build up, over the course of their lifetime. It is, therefore, the migrant’s immigration status that determines whether they pay the surcharge, not their tax contributions or their profession. The Government recognises however that temporary migrants contribute to the UK economy in a number of ways, including paying income tax and national insurance; these contributions are reflected in the surcharge levels, which are below the average per capita cost to the NHS of treating temporary migrants.
The Government has no plans to abolish the surcharge for foreign spouses or partners. Surcharge policy already reflects the special position of those becoming permanent residents of the UK, as the surcharge does not apply to those applying for indefinite leave to remain.
The Government values very highly the contribution NHS employees recruited from overseas make to the health system. NHS workers are, however, in no different position to other providers of essential public services. The Government therefore has no plans to exempt them from the surcharge. All NHS nurses will however benefit from a pay increase as set out in the Agenda for Change framework
The surcharge has delivered over £600 million in additional funding to the NHS since its introduction in 2015. It enables migrants to access the NHS on the same terms as someone who is ordinarily resident in the UK, from the point of their arrival. We believe it offers access to health care services that are far more comprehensive and at a lower cost than many other countries.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the amount of income tax, value added tax and company taxation paid by migrants to the United Kingdom and by companies set up by migrants in each year since 2010 for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The information requested is not available.