Project suspended

Immigration Minister Iain LeesGalloway has suspended a programme that used overstayer data to find out which groups pose the most risk. The pilot programme had run for 18 months and used data including age, gender and ethnicity to determine which groups most commonly run up hospital costs or commit crimes. It has been described as racist and the Greens said it breached the Human Rights Act. Lees-Galloway previously said it didn’t involve racial profiling but yesterday announced it was on hold while officials made sure the data was being used appropriately and legally.