Schools to stop collecting nationality data on pupils

Campaigners have stated that the Department for Education (DfE) is to stop collecting data on nationality, country or birth in schools in England.

Against Borders for Children (ABC), which was set up in September 2016 in protest of this policy, has labelled this a “comprehensive victory”.

More than £12,000 had been donated by over 500 people in order to pay for a court action to overturn the UK Government policy on this issue, represented by Liberty.

The protest group had campaigned to get this school requirement dropped out of fears the information could be used to check on the immigration status of pupils.

Gracie Bradley, advocacy and policy officer at Liberty (and member of the ABC campaign), said: “This is a huge victory for the teachers, parents and campaigners who stood up and refused to comply with this poisonous attempt to build foreign children lists.

“It gives hope that – if more people stand up and resist – we can succeed in dismantling the government’s hostile environment policies piece by piece.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that the Department for Education is still sharing the addresses of hundreds of children and families with the Home Office every month – and the government freely admits that it will use the immigration exemption in the Data Protection Bill to help the Home Office access yet more school records for immigration enforcement.

“Until undocumented people are able to access vital front line services without fear of being shopped to the Home Office, there will still be children in the UK robbed of their right to an education and worse.”