Clause 32 - Information sharing: security purposes
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
4:15 pm
Andy Burnham (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leigh, Labour)
Had the general election not intervened, the drafting of the Bill, given a little more time, could have been tidier. The purpose of our amendments in this group is to clarify and tidy the Bill’s structure. They will make the Bill’s relationship with other legislation that governs the security services more logical and sensible.
The original drafting of clause 32 allows for travel or freight information for security and intelligence purposes to be shared. The amendments give the border agencies a discretionary power to disclose travel and freight data to the security and intelligence agencies for specified purposes: national security, economic well-being and support in combating serious crime. The original provisions allowed the reciprocal sharing of data, but we can inform the Committee that those provisions are not necessary, because existing powers in the Security Service Act 1989 or the Intelligence Services Act 1994, which enable the security and intelligence agencies to disclose data to the border agencies for certain purposes, are sufficient. Therefore the two-way process does not need to be included in the clause, because the existing legislation—namely, those two Acts—allows for the transfer of data back the other way.
As a consequence of the amendments, the code of practice on data sharing no longer applies to the clause. Amendments Nos. 48 and 49 remove references to clause 32 in clause 33, which relates to the code of practice.
Amendments Nos. 36 and 37 allow for information to be disclosed if it is likely to be of use for any of the purposes specified in section 1 of the 1989 Act or sections 1 and 3 of the 1994 Act. Those are the same purposes that I mentioned a moment ago. I hope you will agree, Sir Nicholas, that those are tidying amendments.
I shall now speak to the amendments that have been grouped with the Government amendments. I am sure that the hon. Member for Manchester, Withington (Mr. Leech) will want to make his own comments. It seems appropriate at this stage to put some of our thinking on the record. Amendment No. 100 would create a three-tier process for the code of practice for the one-way transfer of information.
The hon. Gentleman envisaged three tiers in that process: first, that there would be consultation with the Information Commissioner; secondly, that following consultation a draft code would be published; and thirdly, that the Government should consider any representations made about the published draft and lay a code before Parliament.
On each of the points that the hon. Gentleman raises, we can give him some comfort that steps have already been taken or will be taken, according to the Bill as drafted. We have already worked closely with the Information Commissioner on the production of the framework code of practice, which the hon. Gentleman may have had a chance to look at. On 13 October, we published an outline framework for a code of practice on data sharing, in accordance with clause 31 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill, between the immigration service, the police service and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs under e-borders. I recommend that document—with its simple and snappy title—to the hon. Gentleman as a riveting read. It sets out the principles by which we are taking this process forward. I assure him that we have been working closely with the commissioner on its production.
The hon. Gentleman will know that the commissioner has responsibility for ensuring that the principles of the Data Protection Act are upheld, and we are mindful of those principles. The Home Office will continue to work with the commissioner’s office in the production of the subsequent documentation related to the clause.
The hon. Gentleman’s second point was that a draft code should be laid before it is finalised. I refer him to clause 33(2)(a), which states that a code
“shall not be issued unless a draft has been laid before Parliament.”
I think that that takes care of the hon. Gentleman’s point. People would, of course, be able to make representations on the draft.
With those assurances, we urge the hon. Gentleman to withdraw his amendments, although I will expect him to make further points in the course of the debate. The Government amendments to the clause are simply tidying and clarifying amendments to ensure that the Bill, if it is to become an Act, will work properly and fit neatly into the existing legislation that governs the activities and work of our security and intelligence services.