Question
1. Provide an assurance that PSNI officers are not carrying out checks on the immigration status of victims and witnesses of crimes?
2. Confirm that the NPCC guidance ‘Information Sharing with the Home Office where a victim or witness of crime is a suspected immigration offender’ 2020 has not been adopted as PSNI policy, and that any such adoption of such a policy would first require to be subject to formal policy appraisal processes including in particular equality screening?
Answer
1. Can the Chief Constable provide an assurance that PSNI officers are not carrying out checks on the immigration status of victims and witnesses of crimes?
Current organisational guidance issued to officers and staff in July 2021 provided the following direction:
“When an individual reports to the police that they have been a victim of / witness to crime the focus of the police will always be to:
- Investigate the allegation the victim/witness has reported; and
- Put in place such reasonable measures as are necessary to protect the victim/witness from harm.
Officers should not, therefore, routinely search police databases for the purpose of establishing the immigration status of a victim/witness or routinely seek proof of their entitlement to reside in the United Kingdom.
When a victim/witness is suspected by an officer of being an immigration offender, their status as a victim/witness does not change. The focus of the police will remain to investigate the allegation the victim/witness has reported and to put in place such reasonable measures as are necessary to protect them.”
We are continuing to work with our statutory partners and communities to continue to balance our enforcement obligation with the needs of, and concerns expressed by, victims and their advocates.
2. Can the Chief Constable confirm that the NPCC guidance ‘Information Sharing with the Home Office where a victim or witness of crime is a suspected immigration offender’ 2020 has not been adopted as PSNI policy, and that any such adoption of such a policy would first require to be subject to formal policy appraisal processes including in particular equality screening?
The formal Section 75 screening process is currently ongoing in relation to this matter. We will be in a position to provide further updates in due course.
Linda Dillon - Sinn Féin