Home Office Ankle Tags for Illegal Immigrants Breach Data Law, Says Watchdog

Undated file photo of an electronic ankle tag. Alamy/PA

The information watchdog said the Home Office has breached data protection law by using GPS monitoring on bailed illegal immigrants in a pilot programme.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said on Friday that it has issued an enforcement notice and a warning “for failing to sufficiently assess the privacy risks posed by the electronic monitoring of people arriving in the UK via unauthorised means.”

Any processing by the Home Office on the same basis “will be in breach of data protection law and will attract enforcement action,” the watchdog said.

The Home Office acknowledged that “improvements to documentation could be made,” but rejected that the privacy risks of the scheme had not been sufficiently addressed.

The pilot to electronically monitor illegal immigrants released on bail was initially run for a year from June 15, 2022, but was later extended to 18 months because the data collected in the first 12 months had not provided “sufficient evidence” to establish whether the method was an effective way of maintaining contact with the individuals, according to the Home Office.

Under the scheme, illegal immigrants released on bail in England and Wales may be given an ankle tag or a non-fitted device, which must be carried at all times.

Children, some pregnant women, and new mothers, those sent to mental hospitals are examples of those who were wearing the devices.

The ICO said the Home Office has tagged up to 600 people.

The watchdog has been in discussion with the Home Office since about two months after the pilot began after the charity Privacy International raised concerns.

In a statement published on Friday, the ICO said it “found the Home Office failed to sufficiently assess the privacy intrusion of the continuous collection of people’s location information.

“Tracking people is highly intrusive and organisations planning to do this must be able to provide a strong justification for doing so,” the watchdog said.

“Additionally, the Home Office failed to assess the potential impact on people who may already be in a vulnerable position due to their immigration status, including the conditions of their journeys to the UK or English not being their first language.

“That meant the Home Office did not sufficiently consider what measures should be put in place to mitigate against those risks, such as providing clear information about why people’s location data was being collected and how it would be used,” it added.

Information Commissioner John Edwards said mishandling or misinterpretation of the information “could potentially have harmful consequences to people and their future,” adding, “The Home Office did not assess those risks sufficiently, which means the pilot scheme was not legally compliant.”

Mr. Edwards said he welcomes the Home Office’s commitment to improving the privacy information for those whose personal information is still being held and making improvements on their approach to data protection impact assessments.

In response, a Home Office spokesperson said the department is “disappointed.”

“Whilst acknowledging improvements to documentation could be made, we reject the claim that the privacy risks of the scheme weren’t sufficiently addressed,” the statement reads.

“The pilot was designed to help us maintain contact with selected asylum claimants, deter absconding, and progress asylum claims more effectively.”

The spokesperson said the Home Office will “carefully consider the ICO’s findings and respond in due course.”

Under UK law, illegal immigrants can only be detained “where there is a realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable period.”

Home Office ministers previously told MPs the department had lost contact with almost 6,000 people whose asylum claims were “withdrawn” in the year ending September 2023.

PA Media contributed to this report.