Sham marriages

The request was partially successful.

Dear Home Office,

The Independent Chief Inspector's report of December 2016 noted that the Marriage Referral Assessment Unit (MRAU) used a 'trial model', known as 'the dial', to decide which marriage referrals to investigate as potential shams (see https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk... at p.17).

Please provide the following information:

(1) Does the MRAU still use a triage model or similar system to decide which marriage referrals should be investigated as potential shams?

(2) Does the model use nationality as a factor in assessing marriage referrals? If so, please provide a copy of the relevant Ministerial authorisation for the purposes of the Equality Act.

(3) Please provide copies of any equality impact assessments or data protection impact assessments completed in relation to the model.

(4) Please provide copies of any internal policies, guidance or standard operating procedures which deal with the process of handling marriage referrals and the use of the model.

In the event that you determine some of the information I have requested to be exempt from disclosure, please redact exempt information with black boxes, instead of snipping or excerpting, and please state which category of exemption you believe applies to the information.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in s.12 FOIA, please provide advice and assistance as to how I can refine my request, as required under s.16 FOIA.

Yours faithfully,

Jack Maxwell

FOI Requests, Home Office

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FOI Requests, Home Office

Dear Jack Maxwell,

Thank you for contacting the Home Office with your request.

This has been assigned to a caseworker (case ref 61422). We will aim to send you a full response by 30/12/2020 which is twenty working days from the date we received your request.

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you,

N McKenzie
Home Office

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IE PQs, FOIs and Correspondence, Home Office

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Maxwell.

Please find attached a response to your recent Freedom of Information Act
enquiry.

 

Kind regards

 

Home Office

Immigration Enforcement Secretariat.

Freedom of Information & Parliamentary Questions Team

Sandford House

West Midlands

 

 

 

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Dear Home Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of the Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Sham marriages'.

In its response to my request, the Home Office redacted two categories of information:
(1) The criteria used by the triage model, which are set out in the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA), which the Home Office says is exempt under s 31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), on the ground of prejudice to the prevention or detection of crime.
(2) Information in the MRAU Guidance, which the Home Office says is personal information and thus exempt under s 40(3)(a)(i) FOIA (I assume this is in fact a reference to s 40(3A)(a), as s 40(3) no longer exists).

I am seeking internal review of both of these redactions.

I am also seeking internal review of:
(3) The Home Office's failure to disclose its full analysis of the impact of the triage model on different nationalities.

I set out the grounds for my request for internal review below.

(1) Criteria used by the triage model

The Home Office set out its rationale for exempting this information in Annex B to its response. Annex B simply states that '[i]t is in the public interest to ensure that the publication of official information is a properly assessed and sources are protected. The Home Office must ensure that the information intended for publication meets the standards and requirements set for departmental publications. It would not be in the public interest for the Home Office to release this information'. Annex B does not identify the claimed prejudice to the prevention or detection of crime, nor the causal link between the disclosure and the harm claim, nor the likelihood of this harm actually occurring. The response is clearly defective.

More generally, it is not credible to claim that the disclosure of the criteria used by the triage model would prejudice the prevention or detection of sham marriages. First, the Home Office could disclose the criteria without disclosing the weights assigned to them by the triage model. This disclosure would not enable people to circumvent the model's operation. Second, to the extent that the model's criteria focus on static information about people (i.e. features about people which they cannot modify, either at all or in any cost-effective or efficient way), disclosure of those criteria would not enable people to circumvent the model's operation. Third and in any case, the Home Office has disclosed some of the criteria in the remainder of the EIA (e.g. pages 6 and 7 discuss how the model uses couple behaviour, shared travel events and age difference in assessing risk). Given that the Home Office could disclose these criteria without prejudicing the prevention or detection of crime, it is not apparent why the disclosure of the remaining criteria would create a risk of harm engaging s 31(1)(a) FOIA.

In light of the above, I request internal review of the Home Office's failure to disclose the criteria used by the triage model, as covered by my original request.

(2) Information in the MRAU Guidance

The Home Office has redacted large parts of the MRAU Guidance, particularly the flowcharts setting out various internal processes. It is unclear why all of this information falls within the scope of s 40(3A)(a). If these flowcharts contain the names of Home Office officials, then it makes sense to redact them. But other text (e.g. position titles, descriptions of actions to be done by certain officials) is very unlikely to be personal data within the meaning of the GDPR, because it could not be used to identify a natural person.

I request a review of the redactions to the MRAU Guidance to ensure that only personal data has been redacted.

(3) Failure of the Home Office to disclose its full analysis of the impact of the triage model on different nationalities

My request sought 'any equality impact assessments' completed in relation to the model. The Home Office provided its formal EIA dated 30 November 2020 in response. But the EIA indicates that the Home Office has conducted further and more detailed analysis of the equality impacts of the model. Page 9 states that '[a] review of the nationalities involved has been conducted', and page 10 includes an incompletely labelled graph of the impacts of the model on different nationalities.

In light of this, I request a review of the Home Office's failure to disclose all of its assessments of the equality impacts of the model, as originally requested.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

Jack Maxwell

FOI Requests, Home Office

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This is to acknowledge  receipt of your email.

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FOI Requests, Home Office

Dear Jack Maxwell,

Thank you for contacting the Home Office with your request for an internal review.

This has been assigned to a caseworker (case ref 61422). We will aim to send you a full response by 11/02/2021 which is twenty working days from the date we received your request.

Regards

N McKenzie
Home Office

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Dear FOI Requests,

I note that two weeks has passed since the deadline for the resolution of my request for internal review. Could you please resolve my request as soon as practicable?

Yours sincerely,

Jack Maxwell

FOI Requests, Home Office

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This is to acknowledge  receipt of your email.

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FOI Responses, Home Office

Dear Mr Maxwell

 

Thank you for your email dated 25 February asking for an update on your
request for an internal review of FOI request case reference 61422.

 

Although the Department aims to provide a final response within twenty
working days, some requests can take up to forty working days from the
date we received your request. Complex  cases may take even longer.

 

We are currently working on your request and we will send out the final
response as soon as possible.

 

Kind regards

 

Information Rights Team

Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Securities, Estates & Information Directorate

Home Office | 2 Marsham Street | London SW1P 4DF

 

 

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Dear Home Office,

Could you please provide an update on when my request for internal review will be finalised?

Yours faithfully,

Jack Maxwell

FOI Requests, Home Office

Thank you for contacting the Home Office  Freedom of Information Requests
Mailbox.

This is to acknowledge  receipt of your email.

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FOI Requests, Home Office

Dear Mr Maxwell

Thank you for contacting the Home Office. I have forward your email to the case officer dealing with your internal review request for their attention.

Regards

N McKenzie
Home Office

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FOI Responses, Home Office

Dear Mr Maxwell  

 

Thank you for your email dated 15 March asking for an update on your
request for an internal review of FOI request case reference 61422.

 

Although the Department aims to provide a final response within twenty
working days, some requests can take up to forty working days from the
date we received your request. Complex  cases may take even longer.

 

We are currently working on your request and we will send out the final
response as soon as possible.

 

Kind regards

 

Information Rights Team

Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Securities, Estates & Information Directorate

Home Office | 2 Marsham Street | London SW1P 4DF

 

 

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Dear Home Office,

Could you please confirm when you will be determining my request for internal review?

Yours faithfully,

Jack Maxwell

FOI Requests, Home Office

Thank you for contacting the Home Office  Freedom of Information Requests
Mailbox.

This is to acknowledge  receipt of your email.

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Home Office

Dear Mr Maxwell,

Thank you for contacting the Home Office. The case officer dealing with your internal review case will notify you as soon as possible. I have forward your email for their attention.

Regards

N McKenzie
Home Office

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FOI Responses, Home Office

Dear Mr Maxwell

 

Thank you for your email dated 10 May asking for an update on your request
for an internal review of FOI request case reference 61422.

 

Although the Department aims to provide a final response within twenty
working days, some requests can take up to forty working days from the
date we received your request. Complex  cases may take even longer.

 

We are currently working on your request and we will send out the final
response as soon as possible.

 

Please accept our apologies for the delay in sending out the final
response.

 

Kind regards

 

Information Rights Team

Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Securities, Estates & Information Directorate

Home Office | 2 Marsham Street | London SW1P 4DF

 

 

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FOI Responses, Home Office

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Maxwell

 

Please find attached our internal review response to your request for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Kind regards

 

Information Rights Team

Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Securities, Estates & Information Directorate

Home Office | 2 Marsham Street | London SW1P 4DF

 

 

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