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A data analytics team close to the heart of government has collected data on more than 650 million people, including children under the age of 13, according to newly unearthed documents.
The Data Services & Analytics unit is described as “one of the most advanced data analytics centres in government” and forms part of the Home Office’s Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) department. It builds decision-making tools and provides data-driven insights to the rest of the Home Office – although details of exactly what it does remain tightly guarded.
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The huge amount of data being analysed and the Home Office’s lack of transparency has prompted accusations from privacy campaigners that the unit could be creating a “super database” that risks exacerbating racial biases among law enforcement agencies.
A UK immigration rule that targets foreign rough sleepers could discriminate against ethnic minorities, a report has warned. The Home Office has admitted that the policy, which was recently revived, may be discriminatory toward ethnic minorities, including Asian women who have survived domestic abuse.
According to an internal document, which outlines the Home Office’s analysis of the policy to deport foreign rough sleepers, the rule could indirectly affect vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities.
The policy has caused widespread outrage ever since it came into force. An eight-page equality impact assessment, seen by Liberty Investigates, concedes that there is potential for the rule to indirectly discriminate against someone based on race, given that some factors that lead to homelessness disproportionately affect people from certain ethnic groups.
Tue 6 Apr 2021 01.00 EDT
Keir Starmer is likely to vote against introducing Covid-status certificates if the government presses ahead with such plans, the Guardian has been told, as Boris Johnson promised the documents would not be introduced earlier than mid-May.
A senior Labour source said they did not think ministers had adequately explained how the scheme would work, what its purpose was and the cost to the taxpayer, significantly increasing the chances that the prime minister could lose a vote in parliament.
Forty Tory MPs have pledged to oppose certificates that they said were “divisive and discriminatory”, potentially wiping out the government’s majority. They have been joined by about 20 Labour backbenchers and the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.