Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what provisions are in place for HMRC to (a) receive and (b) share tax return data with the Home Office for immigration enforcement purposes.

HMRC and the Home Office (HO) have a long-established relationship underpinned by a single Partnership Agreement. The Partnership Agreement sets out the framework under which HMRC and HO work together. Sitting under this Partnership Agreement are a number of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and Data Usage Agreements (DUAs) regarding the sharing of data for immigration enforcement purposes.

These documents are signed off by both departments and outline the approved legal gateway for the data share, the purpose of the data share, how the data will be used, what data is to be shared and how, data security obligations, and data retention policy.

HMRC have extensive senior governance in place to assure that Data Sharing Agreements (DSAs) adhere to legal requirements and are proportionate in their requests. All DSAs are assessed under relevant legislation and are reviewed under a regular schedule. Secure data transfer infrastructure is in place for data exchange, and data is only permitted to be used for the agreed purpose.