Child nationality and country of birth data to be ceased
The Department for Education has dropped the categories of child nationality and country of birth in their data collection requirements. The data will cease to be gathered by the government following a series of court challenges by campaigners. The policy was introduced just two years ago in September 2016 asking parents to state if their child was a foreign national. With a widespread backlash, the reversal of policy has received a warm welcome. Seen as an unwelcome infringement on human civil rights or some sort of foreign children’s list that some saw as a racist move the u-turn is a countrywide victory.
The figures were recorded at a national level and local authority level, in 2017, 2.1% of parents refused to confirm their child’s nationality and 1.9% refused to disclose the child’s country of birth. Privacy groups, civil rights activists, civil liberties groups and teachers have all welcomed the change. At the time the plan for the data was to help schools assist speakers of another language in schools and insisted the information would not be shared. But under the freedom of information act, it has become apparent this information was shared with the home office and the police. The department for educations database has details of over twenty million pupils.