Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle the fear of reporting to the police faced by victims of domestic abuse with insecure immigration status, including through the establishment of a firewall.

The Home Office are currently undertaking a review into data sharing arrangements concerning migrant victims and witnesses of crime with insecure immigration status, acting upon the recommendation within HMICFRS’s super-complaint report ‘Safe to Share?’. The review will consider initiatives that seek to encourage the reporting of crime by migrant victims and witnesses with insecure immigration status, including the further consideration of a mechanism for establishing a firewall between police and immigration enforcement services. The outcome of the review is to establish safe reporting mechanisms for victims and witnesses of crime. The review is being developed in close consultation with migrant victims representative organisations to inform and shape review conclusions. As set out in legislation, the review will be published by no later than 29 December 2021.