The ability to obtain a police report following an RTC (road traffic collision) is a post-code lottery. At the time of writing, 01/2025, Staffordshire police, for example, are struggling … to disclose anything since July 2023!
Obtaining police road traffic collision (RTC) reports was relatively straightforward; pay a fee (often large) and information about the incident would be disclosed. The Data Protection Act (DPA) dates from 1984 … for about 30 years the RTC report disclosure operated without issue. But then, a disclosure directly to a member of the public, not to an insurer, caused a problem.
Disclosing to an individual was surely considered more risky, and questionable. The outcome; a ‘baby out with the bathwater’ situation arose within some constabularies; nothing would be disclosed.
The event:
In brief, following an allegation of damage being caused to a vehicle, Sussex police provided the aggrieved with details of the alleged perpetrator. The aggrieved party appears to have provided the information to another who confronted the suspect (data subject) who then complained to the ICO about the disclosure of their personal details.
Many may reasonably believe s170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 is engaged … the ICO’s approach is detailed in the exchanges we obtained and gave rise to the NPC involvement and new ‘guidance’.
Treating the disclosure of a police report to an insurer or their representatives as a disclosure to a third-party, an individual, appears odd. For example, it appears an insurer could argue their request (and the disclosure) falls to ‘Law enforcement purposes as defined in Part 3 Chapter 1 section 31 Of DPA 18’:
“…the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences ….”
RTC’s are well known to be associated with concoction and/or exaggeration and staging both of which fall to a criminal offence; fraud.
The continuity of the Sussex police event, as known, is as follows. The linked pages contain information scanned from disclosures and the subject of OCR. Inaccuracies may be present and therefore should not be relied upon – the original exchange disclosure from the ICO can therefore be found below.
28/02/2022 – The Information Commissioner’s Office presents a complaint to Sussex Police and
03/03/2022 – Sussex police respond
15/03/2022 – The ICO’s reply and
18/03/2022 – Sussex police respond citing s170 of the RTA 1988 and their Road Traffic Collisions policy
29/03/2022 – The ICO responds and
14/04/2022 – Sussex police explain the disclosure. The constabulary attaches a substantial amount of policy information which can be read here.
08/07/2022 – The ICO responded to Sussex police and
22/07/2022 – Sussex Police respond, including a review and the constabularies considered explanations; why they considered they had complied with the law.
07/11/2022 – the ICO’s decision – letter to Sussex Police:
- It is the ICO’s view that [redacted] has not identified a valid lawful basis for disclosing Mr [redacted] personal data.
30/05/2023 – NPCC letter to all Chief Constables
It appears the issue gave rise to the following:
07/2023 – NPCC guidance on police disclosure following road traffic collisions
ICO disclosure of Sussex police exchanges: