Section 36: Duty to share information
84.Section 36 introduces a new power which provides for information obtained or held by the Border Agencies (Immigration Service, Police Service and HM Revenue and Customs) in the course of their functions to be shared, to the extent that the information is likely to be of use for immigration, police or Revenue and Customs purposes (which are terms defined in sections 20 and 21 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999).
85.Subsection (4) provides for the Secretary of State and the Treasury to issue jointly an order specifying the type of information to which this duty to share applies. Subsection (7) specifies that an order made under subsection (4) will exclude information collected by HM Revenue and Customs under the former Inland Revenue's powers.
The duty on a chief officer of police in Scotland to share information only applies to information which is likely to be of use for immigration, revenue and customs purposes and police purposes in so far as they are or relate to reserved matters (within the meaning of the Scotland Act 1998).
