Hostile environment measure restarted after pause of policy in 2018 due to Windrush scandal
The Home Office announced on Thursday ahead of the Easter weekend that data sharing between the Home Office and UK banks and building societies has now been restarted.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe measure is intended to prevent migrants without legal status in the UK from opening and operating current accounts. Under the arrangement, the Home Office will provide data to financial institutions about people who are known to be in the UK unlawfully or who have absconded from immigration control.
In a press release, the Home Office said: "The new measures do not impose any requirements on banks to check customer's documents. Instead, the Home Office will share details of disqualified persons via an anti-fraud organisation, and banks and building societies will then check their personal current account holders against those details. … Bank account closures will only occur where the Home Office has made a further check to ensure that the customer is still in the UK without permission to stay."
As noted by the Guardian, the Home Office suspended the hostile environment policy of carrying out immigration checks on UK bank accounts in 2018 due to problems highlighted by the Windrush scandal. A Home Office spokesperson said at the time: "It is right, in light of Windrush, that we review existing safeguards to ensure that those who are here lawfully are not inadvertently disadvantaged by measures put in place to tackle illegal migration."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said during his major statement on 'illegal migration' in December 2022 that he wanted data sharing to be restarted.
Announcing the official restarting of the policy last week, immigration minister Robert Jenrick said robust safeguards were now in place to prevent bank accounts from being wrongly closed.
In March, the Home Office published updated guidance for banks and building societies on carrying out immigration checks on current account holders.
The guidance explains: "Banks and building societies are prohibited from opening or operating current accounts for persons who are disqualified from accessing those services due to their immigration status. To find out whether individuals are disqualified, banks and building societies must check their customers' details against data on known unlawful migrants. The data is supplied to banks and building societies by the Home Office, via a specified anti-fraud organisation."
Gherson Solicitors noted that the guidance specifies that checks on existing accounts must be done quarterly. Gherson added: "If a match is found, the financial institution must notify the Home Office, which will then undertake additional steps to confirm the validity of the data. The Home Office will then issue instructions to the institution, which can range from no action to a freezing order or closure of the account. The financial institution must fulfil any instructions given, usually as soon as practicable."
Further updated guidance is available here from the Home Office for people who have had their bank account closed or an application refused because of their immigration status.
Amnesty International UK's Steve Valdez-Symonds told Sky News that the data sharing arrangement with banks was one of the many ways in which the Government has co-opted private companies and civil society into immigration policy.
"It is part of an exercise in socially excluding and isolating a mass of people regardless of their individual circumstances - including where those culpable for why people are in these circumstances are human traffickers, other abusers and even the Home Office," Valdez-Symonds added.