Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether any pupil nationality data collected by schools has been shared with the Home Office for immigration enforcement purposes since September 2016.

The National Pupil Database (NPD) is a longitudinal research database that provides invaluable evidence on educational performance to inform independent research, as well as studies commissioned by the Department. This data does not include nationality or birth information.

Data on nationality and country of birth have not and will not be shared with the Home Office. These data items are for evidence and analysis by the Department for Education only and are not processed into the National Pupil Database.

The former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System (Lord Nash) publicly committed to this during a House of Lords debate on 31 October 2016 on the Education (Pupil Information) (England) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2016 as found in columns 510 - 512 of volume 776 of Hansard.

The current Memorandum of Understanding between the Department and the Home Office is in the House Library.