The balls-up which led to hundreds of UK citizens being wrongly accused of being illegal immigrants – and ordered to leave the country immediately – is to be investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office and could spark huge fines for the government.
The scandal, sparked by the UK Border Agency and its third-party supplier Capita, broke over Christmas. A text message sent to the accused is believed to have stated: “Message from the UK Border Agency: you are required to leave the UK as you no longer have the right to remain.”
Capita was appointed in September by the Border Agency to track down and contact 174,000 immigrants accused of staying in the country illegally, but in several hundred cases the texts were received by UK passport holders.
Some recipients assumed the texts were spam and ignored them, while others continued to receive texts despite contacting the Border Agency direct.
A spokesman for the Information Commissioner said the organisation would investigate whether the information being held by the UKBA complied with the requirement of the Data Protection Act (DPA) to ensure its accuracy. It is not clear whether the error lies with the information supplied to Capita or the firm’s handling of that data.
“It’s important that organisations make sure they are taking reasonable steps to ensure they comply with the Data Protection Act, including ensuring the personal information they hold is adequate, accurate, and where necessary, kept up to date,” the ICO said.
“If anyone feels that an organisation has not handled their information fairly then they can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.”
