Published 16 June 2022
Last updated 15 April 2024 — See all updates
Third Party Material Case File
Review Report
Detail of outcome
This consultation response provides a summary of what respondents
told us, and the action that the government is committing to take
to ensure that victims feel confident that they can pursue and
receive justice.
To complement the qualitative evidence gathered in the
consultation the Home Office promised to gather further empirical
evidence on the issue of necessity, proportionality and
timeliness of third party material requests through a review of
police case files.
Original consultation Summary
We are gathering information about police requests for personal
data from third parties, such as the NHS or local authorities,
when investigating crimes.
This consultation ran from
10am on 16 June 2022 to 11:59pm on 11 August
2022
Consultation description
This consultation explores issues around police requests for
personal records such as health, education and social service
records (known as third party material) during criminal
investigations. Whilst requests for information from
organisations such as doctors, social workers or support services
can be an essential part of an investigation we realise that they
can be highly intrusive, disproportionate or even unnecessary. We
want to understand more about this as well as to propose
solutions for respondents.
We would like to hear from anyone who has experience of
requesting or fulfilling requests for this kind of information,
or who has had this kind of information requested about them.
This includes:
- those involved in the criminal justice system
- any organisation that holds personal information that could
be requested by the police
- victim groups
- victims of crime who have had this kind of material requested
about them during an investigation
Consultation
document
