Each term, the Department for Education in England collects details of pupils in its state schools. This census information includes details of students’ as ages, addresses and academic attainment, and is recorded in the national pupil database.
Previously, parents could refuse to enter any information they perceived to be sensitive, but following the revocation by the government of parents’ right to retract information on their children’s nationality and country of birth, concern has grown that the data collected by the schools census could turn schools into internal border checkpoints. These concerns were given weight when some schools instructed pupils who were not “white British” to bring in identity documents. Fears that the policy was encouraging racism and a culture of institutional hostility to migrants have been expressed.
Officials from the Department for Education collected the data on 6 million schoolchildren, before the policy was halted in June 2018 in the face of opposition. Now ministers have confirmed that not only will they continue to store the data already collected, but also that parents can no longer ask schools to enter “refused”, which instructs the Department to delete their children’s data.
When concerns were first raised about collection of children’s nationality and country of birth, the Department for Education insisted that the new data would not be shared with immigration enforcement authorities, that it was only being collected for “analytical, statistical and research purposes”, and that parents could opt out whenever they wanted.
It subsequently emerged that this was not the case. Instead, names and addresses of children collected through the census had since 2015 been clandestinely shared every month with immigration enforcement pursuant to a memorandum of understanding between the Department for Education and the Home Office that showed that officials had originally intended for nationality and birth country data to be used for immigration enforcement.
The memorandum was quietly amended some months after public opposition emerged.
Against Borders for Children, a group set up to campaign against the use of children’s data for immigration enforcement, began legal action against Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary to force his department to delete the data it currently holds on the grounds that every child has a right to education without fear of immigration enforcement. The group hopes the Information Commissioner’s Office will put an end to the practice of repurposing data without the subjects’ informed consent.
