Home Office powers to check NHS immigration data is severely restricted

The government has announced that Home Office powers to access information about patients—through a controversial data sharing arrangement with the NHS—to help officials locate people who have breached their right to remain in the UK, is to be limited.1

The announcement follows pressure from MPs, doctors’ groups, and health charities, who warned that the practice was deterring patients from seeking NHS care.2

Margot James, a minister in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, announced the rethink during …