Part 6: Information
Section 40: Supply of Revenue and Customs information
123.This section provides that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO), as well as those authorised to act on behalf of those organisations, may supply the Secretary of State with information, documents or articles for use for those purposes which are specified in this provision, all of which relate to the exercise of the Secretary of State’s immigration and nationality functions.
Section 41: Confidentiality
124.This section sets out the statutory duty of confidentiality placed on the Secretary of State, Ministers and their officials as well as those acting on their behalf in respect of information, documents and articles supplied by HMRC, the RCPO or those acting on either organisation’s behalf under those provisions specified in subsection (2) unless it is for a purpose permitted in this provision.
125.It means that the Secretary of State, Ministers and the officials as well as those acting on their behalf are permitted to disclose information only if permitted to do so by any other enactment (not including an Act of the Scottish Parliament or of the Northern Ireland Assembly or an instrument made under such an Act) or the disclosure is for a purpose specified in subsection (3).
Section 42: Wrongful disclosure
126.This section creates an offence of wrongful disclosure of certain information supplied by HMRC, the RCPO or those authorised to act on behalf of either of them. The offence is committed where a person in disclosing the information which relates to an identifiable natural or legal person contravenes section 41. It does not apply to the disclosure of information about internal administrative arrangements of HMRC or the RCPO.
127.The offence applies in respect of the information supplied to the Secretary of State, etc. under the relevant provisions both before and after this provision is commenced.
Section 43: Supply of police information, etc.
128.This section amends section 131 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. That provision provides that information may be supplied under section 20 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 for the purpose of determining whether an applicant for naturalisation under the British Nationality Act 1981 is of good character. Section 20 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 provides for information to be supplied to the Secretary of State by a number of persons specified in subsection (1) or specified in an order made under subsection (1)(f) for immigration purposes as defined in that provision.
129.This section in amending section 131 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, enables those persons (including chief officers of police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency) to supply information to assist the Secretary of State in determining whether applicants aged 10 or over for registration under a provision listed in section 58(2) of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 are of good character. Such information may include evidence of previous convictions.
Sections 44-47: Entry and search for nationality documents and seizure and retention of nationality documents
130.Where a person has been arrested for a criminal offence, and an immigration officer or a police constable suspects that the individual might not be a British citizen and documents relating to his nationality might be found on certain premises, the immigration officer or constable may enter and search the premises without warrant for the purpose of finding those documents (under section 44).
131.A nationality document means a document showing the individual’s identity, nationality or citizenship, the place from which he travelled to the United Kingdom, or the place to which he is proposing to go (subsection (5)). The premises which may be searched are premises occupied or controlled by the arrested person, or the premises in which he was when, or immediately before, he was arrested (subsection (1)(b)).
132.Under subsection (3) the power of entry and search may only be exercised with the written authority of a senior officer. In relation to an immigration officer, a senior officer is an immigration officer of at least the rank of chief immigration officer. In relation to a constable, a senior officer is a constable of at least the rank of inspector. The senior officer who authorises the search must arrange for a written record of the grounds for the suspicions in reliance on which the power was exercised and the nature of the documents sought (subsection (3)(b)).
133.Under subsection (4) the power of search may not be exercised where the arrested person has been released without charge.
134.Under section 45, where it is believed that nationality documents may be held at premises other than those set out in section 44, a warrant may be sought to enter and search those premises. This ensures judicial oversight for this wider search power, and subsection (4) provides additional safeguards for when a warrant may be sought. If a warrant is to be obtained by or executed by a police constable the safeguards in sections 15 and 16 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 will apply.
135.Under section 46 an immigration officer or constable may seize a document which he thinks is a nationality document relating to the arrested person, provided it is not a document subject to legal privilege (subsection (2)). An immigration officer or a constable may retain the seized document while he suspects that the individual to whom the document relates may be liable to removal, and that retention of the document may facilitate removal.
136.Subsection (4) and (5) provide for the access to and copying of any documents seized.
137.Section 47 inserts a new paragraph 18A to Part 2 of Schedule 4 to the Police Reform Act 2002 (powers exercisable by police civilians: investigating officers). This enables an investigating officer to exercise the new powers of entry, search, seizure and retention, in the same way that a constable can, provided he is designated as having these particular powers.
