Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the UK Visas and Immigration MPs' Enquiry Service requires letters of authority from visa applicants whose sponsor has contacted their MP about the progress of their application.

The Data Protection Act 2018 requires large organisations such as the Home Office to ensure that we protect the individual rights and freedoms of the individuals (data subjects) whose information we process. We are not able to provide personal information as defined by the Data Protection Act 2018 to third parties, including sponsors with the explicit consent of the applicant. We therefore ask that sponsors provide letters of authority showing they have the applicant’s consent before providing personal information.

Article 4 (11) of the GDPR defines consent and further conditions for consent are listed in Article 7.