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UK Borders Bill

Thank you for your counsel, Madam Deputy Speaker. We need to make changes in this area, but our acceptance of new clause 1 is constrained by the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998. The way that it is drafted means that we would have to disclose information in quite a wide range of circumstances. For example, we would have to disclose the nature and basis of the asylum claim, and that could lead to questions about what considerations had been taken into account and what information was taken into account under articles 8 and 3 of the European convention on human rights. It is important that we frame the Bill in a way that allows us to disclose the maximum possible amount of information to families and victims, yet still observe the constraints of existing legislation. Section 15 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 allows information to be disclosed on 65 different offences. Under that provision, victim liaison officers are allowed to provide information about when a decision is made, when a deportation has been effected, and what conditions are attached to a person who has been released on bail. The victim has to opt in, and that happens in about 15,000 cases each year, so some of the arrangements are working in practice. I would be grateful if my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford would meet me to discuss his constituency case in more detail, so that we can understand whether the arrangements that have been put in place under the 2003 Act are working in that case or whether there is a problem with the implementation of the policy. Is there something that is mechanically not working and needs to be addressed?