Legal action launched over data sharing between Home Office and hospitals

A legal action has been launched in the High Court over the practice of data sharing between hospitals and the Home Office, it has emerged.

Claimant law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn said it had been instructed by a number of individuals “to challenge immigration rules and guidance which require hospitals to report patients with debts to the Home Office, and which then permit the Home Office to refuse those patients leave to remain in the UK”.

The firm said the basis of the challenge was that the rules breached patient confidentiality and were discriminatory.

A permission hearing is expected to take place on 1 May.

Adam Hundt and Rachel Etheridge of the Bristol office of Deighton Pierce Glynn are acting for the claimants. They have instructed Matrix Chambers’ David Wolfe QC and Nick Armstrong.