Guidance

What happens to your data: guidance for overseas patients

Published 5 April 2019

1. Why the NHS is sharing information about you with the Home Office

You are receiving this guidance because you have an unpaid debt for NHS care, which the NHS is legally obliged to inform the Home Office of through the Department of Health and Social Care.

Debts may give reason to refuse an application for a new visa or extension of stay for a person subject to immigration control.

The Overseas Visitor Manager (or equivalent) at this NHS hospital has shared information about you. This leaflet explains why and what will happen with the information now.

2. What information has been shared with the Home Office

The NHS is allowed to share a patient’s non-clinical information securely, including:

• full name (first name and surname)
• aliases (if applicable)
• date of birth
• gender
• nationality
• current address (if known)
• National Insurance number (if applicable)
• Home Office reference number (if applicable)
• any other reference number (for example, passport number)
• details of your unpaid debt

3. What the Home Office will do with your information

The Home Office may use this information to update its records and, as appropriate, it may refuse your immigration applications until your NHS debt is paid.

4. Sharing information about your health with the Home Office

We do not share information about your health with the Home Office.

The only information shared with the Home Office is the non-medical information you have supplied to the Overseas Visitor Manager, or another NHS organisation.

5. Sharing your information with the Home Office if you now refuse treatment

Information about you may have been shared with the Home Office already, to help the NHS provider to work out if you need to pay for your NHS care (see Immigration status checks by the NHS: guidance for overseas patients for more information).

If you need (or needed) immediately necessary or urgent treatment that cannot wait, then it is important that you get this and it will not be withheld, even if charges apply.

6. Providing your address

You need to provide your address to help the Home Office identify you, reducing delay and the potential for misidentification, and the risks associated with this.

7. Protecting your personal information

All personal information held by the Home Office is stored and processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and Human Rights Act 1998.

8. Sharing your information with other government organisations

The Home Office may share your information with law enforcement bodies for the exercise of their functions including national security, the investigation and prosecution of crime, and the collection of fines and civil penalties.

The Home Office may also share your information with other UK government departments such as HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions for their functions.

All sharing of information is undertaken in line with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the borders, immigration and citizenship privacy information notice.

9. Selling your information to non-government organisations

The Home Office will not sell your information to any non-government organisations or any other private organisations.

10. Telling you if your information is shared with a third party

Information about how the Home Office shares data is available in the borders, immigration and citizenship privacy information notice.