Personal details of Referee - Naturalisation application

The request was successful.

Dear Home Office,

The naturalisation form (paper/online) states that passport number of the referee must be provided, if they are a British Citizen.

1) Although the referee may know the applicant as a friend, colleague or in a professional capacity, are they obliged to share sensitive personal details (date of birth & passport number) with the applicant?

2) Will the application be rejected if the applicant does not provide the details (date of birth & passport number) for the referees?

3) If the details (date of birth & passport number) are deemed mandatory, is there any plan for Home Office to collect the sensitive information directly from the nominated referees?

Yours faithfully,
Shankar

FOI Requests, Home Office

Dear Shankar,

 

Please be aware that we have decided to handle your correspondence of 13
January 2019 outside the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.
This is because it does not meet the criteria for a Freedom of Information
request, as it does not ask for recorded information.

 

Below is a link to the ICO guidance for the criteria for valid requests
under the Act:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

 

We will provide an answer to your query, but it will be answered outside
of the provisions of the Act.  You should expect to receive a response in
due course.

 

N McKenzie

Home Office

 

 

 

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Further Nationality Enquiries, Home Office

1 Attachment

Dear Shankar

 

Thank you for the email,

 

It is a pre requisite to have a referee with the applications, however it
is not mandatory to supply their passport number. In each instance whereby
you acquire a referee then it is always expected that you have sought
their permission beforehand and that they are happy for you to supply the
Home Office with their details.

 

If the applicant does not wish to supply these details then a member of
staff based at the Home Office have the capacity to contact the referee to
ascertain any further information.

 

The answer to whether the application will be rejected is no. Only if the
applicant refuses to supply a referee would we consider refusal. If there
was a valid reason substantiated with evidence then we may consider
waiving the requirement.

 

 

Regards

 

M Goode

UK Visas and Immigration

 

[1]www.gov.uk/ukvi

 

We would like to hear about your experience and invite you to spend a few
moments completing this customer satisfaction survey:

[2]www.homeofficesurveys.homeoffice.gov.uk/s/108105TAZNG

 

 

 

From: Shankar [[3]mailto:[FOI #544313 email]]
Sent: 13 January 2019 13:11
To: FOI Requests
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Personal details of Referee -
Naturalisation application

 

Dear Home Office,

 

The naturalisation form (paper/online) states that passport number of the
referee must be provided, if they are a British Citizen.

 

1)         Although the referee may know the applicant as a friend,
colleague or in a professional capacity, are they obliged to share
sensitive personal details (date of birth & passport number) with the
applicant?

 

2)         Will the application be rejected if the applicant does not
provide the details (date of birth & passport number) for the referees?

 

3)         If the details (date of birth & passport number) are deemed
mandatory, is there any plan for Home Office to collect the sensitive
information directly from the nominated referees?

 

Yours faithfully,

Shankar

 

 

 

 

 

From: Digital Correspondence Allocation Team
Sent: 18 January 2019 15:10
To: Further Nationality Enquiries
Subject: FW: Freedom of Information request - Personal details of Referee
- Naturalisation application - ACD

 

 

 

Dear Colleague/s,

 

We are allocating this email to your unit as we believe you are best
placed to respond.  Please note that this email has come from a public
website so only general information should be disclosed.

 

If you consider that this case is not for yourself or your area, then
please forward onto the correct unit or return it to us with a suggestion
of whom to allocate it to.

 

Please note that we are an allocation team/hub and do not draft/send
responses to customers.

 

In accordance with the new data regulations we have updated our Privacy
Information Notice and you can find out more by going to:
[4]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

Or: 
[5]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

 

 

Regards

 

C d’Ambrumenil

Digital Correspondence Allocation Team (DCAT)

Customer Correspondence Hub (CCH)

Customer, Performance and Improvement (CPI)

 

UK Visas and Immigration

7^th floor Lunar House

Wellesley Road, Croydon, CR9 2BY

Driving improved delivery for customers, supporting secure decisions.

 

[6]cid:image001.png@01D2BF66.BCA70EC0

 

 

From: FOI Requests
Sent: 14 January 2019 08:47
To: Digital Correspondence Allocation Team
Subject: FW: Freedom of Information request - Personal details of Referee
- Naturalisation application

 

DCA,

 

Please see below for your attention. This e-mail was received in the FOI
inbox, but is to be handled as ‘business as usual’ correspondence.  Please
advise the team dealing with it that a response needs to be sent within 20
working days.

 

 

Thank you,

 

Noel Mckenzie

Information Rights Team, Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Performance, Assurance and Governance Directorate

Capabilities & Resources

 

Home Office

Lower Ground Floor | Seacole | 2 Marsham Street | London SW1P 4DF

Tel: 020 7035 6351

[mobile number]

[7]www.gov.uk/home-office

 

 

 

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