You are entitled to request information held about you from a third party. For example, you may wish to be provided a copy of your crime report to progress an insurance claim following the theft of a vehicle.
You could simply give the party holding the information, a police constabulary, CONSENT to provide the information to another. Or you could provide your insurance company, or their representatives, CONSENT to obtain the information from the constabulary.
However, some police services are reluctant to make such disclosures and would prefer the insurer (or their agent) to use an ‘agreed’ process, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). But this comes with its own problems:
- The MoU does not apply to every insurer. Not all insurance companies are treated equally by the police
- The MoU does not guarantee the information will be disclosed within a set period
- There is a cost. For providing what is often a brief account, with scant information and would take little time to check, redact (if necessary) and disclose, a charge of about £150 can be made by the police
Conversely, a SAR request:
- applies to all constabularies, can be utilised by an insured/victim. An insurer can also be given authroity to make a ‘Third Party SAR’; an insured/victim can be authorised to make a SAR on the subject’s (insured’s) behalf
- The information is required to be disclsoed within a calendar month, subject to some exemptions
- There is no cost.
The issue of TP SAR’s is currently, as of early 2026, with the ICO as Essex constabulary, which charges over £150 per disclosure, has challenged the process.
I should be noted that disclosures can be subject to some difficulties.
Ongoing Investigation
Read more, to include ongoing correspondence with the ICO, here.