The Home Office has been issued an enforcement notice and a warning by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regarding a pilot involving GPS ankle tags to monitor the movement of up to 600 migrants in the UK.

The purpose of the Home Office’s pilot, which ended in December 2023, was to assess electronic monitoring as a way of maintaining contact with people on immigration bail, and as a detention alternative.

After concerns about the scheme were raised by campaign group Privacy International, the ICO’s enquiries found that the Home Office was unable to adequately explain why it was necessary or proportionate to collect, assess, and use people’s information via electronic monitoring for the pilot’s purpose, including failing to evidence that it had considered less intrusive methods.

The data regulator also said that the Home Office failed to sufficiently assess the privacy intrusion of the continuous collection of people’s location information.

Further, the Home Office failed to provide clear and easily accessible information to the people being tagged about what personal information is being collected, how it will be used, how long it will be kept for, and who it will be shared with.

The Home Office’s guidance also failed to provide adequate direction to staff on when it would be necessary and proportionate to electronically monitor people as an immigration bail condition, said the data regulator.

Although the pilot scheme ended at the tail end of last year, the Home Office will continue to be able to access the personal information gathered throughout the pilot until all the data has been deleted or anonymised. This means there is still the potential for the information to be accessed and used, not just by the Home Office but other third-party organisations.

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John Edwards, the UK Information Commissioner, commented on the pilot and the ICO’s enquiries: “Having access to a person’s 24/7 movements is highly intrusive, as it is likely to reveal a lot of information about them, including the potential to infer sensitive information such as their religion, sexuality, or health status. Lack of clarity on how this information will be used can also inadvertently inhibit people’s movements and freedom to take part in day-to-day activities.

“If such information were to be mishandled or misinterpreted, it could potentially have harmful consequences to people and their future. The Home Office did not assess those risks sufficiently, which means the pilot scheme was not legally compliant.

“We recognise the Home Office’s crucial work to keep the UK safe, and it’s for them to decide on what measures are necessary to do so. But I’m sending a clear warning to the Home Office that they cannot take the same approach in the future. It is our duty to uphold people’s information rights, regardless of their circumstances.”

The Enforcement Notice issued by the ICO orders the Home Office to update its internal policies, access guidance, and privacy information in relation to the data retained from the pilot scheme.

Alongside the notice is a formal warning, stating that any future processing by the Home Office on the same basis will be in breach of data protection law and will attract enforcement action.