Cable and Davey call on Javid to drop Home Office plan to deny immigrants access to their data

Sajid Javid has been urged to dump the controversial Immigration Exemption Clause in the Data Protection Bill, which will be debated next week.  Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey have written to the new Home Secretary to protect people’s fundamental rights when their data is being processed for immigration purposes.  Many immigration decisions are overturned at appeal because the Home Office has made mistakes. But the Bill puts at risk the right for individuals to see what information the Home Office holds on them and the Lib Dems are pressuring the government to make a concession on this point.   In the letter Vince Cable and Ed Davey write:  ”Amendment 15 to the Bill, which will be debated next week, would maintain these rights: if you sign it or table a satisfactory alternative government amendment, you will have our strong support.  “Drawing on the public goodwill towards those British people who were victims of the Windrush scandal, you enter office with an exceptional opportunity to change the nature of debate about immigration in this country.”  The letter also urges the Home Secretary to publish a Foreign Office report that allegedly shows Philip Hammond warned the Home Office about possible deportations of the Windrush generation in April 2016, when Theresa May was Home Secretary.