In June 2018, following two years of campaigning against nationality and country-of-birth data collection in schools across England, the UK Government issued new guidance for schools confirming that this data would no longer be sought. The data on children was collected in the school Census as part of the Prime Minister’s “hostile environment” agenda towards migrants. ABC was set up in September 2016 to fight this policy through a successful boycott campaign and subsequently took on a legal action with the assistance of Liberty.

The policy change marked a major victory for campaigners, Against Borders for Children (ABC) alongside a wide range of privacy, human rights and anti-racism campaigners – but still no confirmation has been given that Ministers will order the deletion of data already gathered, and address data is still being shared with the Home Office for immigration enforcement purposes.

We are continuing to seek the deletion of the nationality, country of birth, first language and ethnicity data gathered between 2016 – 2018 and an end to policies that seek to create a hostile environment in schools. You can take action to keep immigration checks out of schools and protect all children in education:

Download our data removal form