High value data sharing protocol - Five Country Conference

The UK is a member - with Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand - of the Five Country Conference, which engages in ongoing strategic initiatives on immigration and border security.

In June 2009, the governments of these five countries signed a joint agreement to pursue biometric data sharing for immigration purposes. Under the agreement, known as the 'high value data sharing protocol', the countries will share a limited number of immigration fingerprint records (approximately 3,000 per country per year) for matching against the other countries' immigration databases. If a match is found, further biographical information will be shared on a bilateral basis.

The UK Border Agency's privacy impact assessment of the protocol is published below. The US Department of Homeland Security has also published its own privacy impact assessment (PDF, 195KB opens in a new window).

Last Updated: 09 December 2010