Police requests for third party material

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