Although not a conviction, a police caution acts as an indefinite record of guilt, which can have lasting consequences. Likewise, despite being acquitted following trial, defendants who have been prosecuted but ultimately found not guilty can experience personal and professional difficulties due to traces of the proceedings on their records. Certain regulated professions and employers conduct due diligence through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and similar providers, which can access records and intelligence held by the police, even where there has been no finding of guilt by a court. These records can also impact on an individual’s immigration status and ability to travel to certain countries.
We are experienced in preparing applications for the deletion of records held on the Police National Computer (PNC) and locally by police forces. The legislation and caselaw in this area is developing at pace, offering new opportunities for individuals to rely on the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) when applying for the erasure of personal data. Understanding the relationship between rights and entitlements under the DPA and other avenues to deletion is key to success.
Our work in this area draws on our extensive experience and understanding of the criminal justice system, police procedures, and data and privacy law. Our lawyers are uniquely placed to secure the best possible result for you, setting the record straight and restoring your reputation.
Our expertise
BCL are ranked in Band 1 for Crime in Chambers and Partners and Band 1 for Crime: General in The Legal 500.
Specialists from our criminal and data and privacy teams work closely together to identify what data about you is held on police systems. We advise in relation to the available options to apply for the deletion of your data and the likely prospects of success. When we consider that an application has been unfairly refused, we are experienced in challenging decisions of public bodies by way of appeal and complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
We provide beginning to end representation to guide you through the entire record deletion process, including in connection with:
- applications for the removal of cautions from the PNC;
- appeals by way of judicial review to the High Court to have cautions quashed;
- identifying what data police forces and other agencies hold about you by exercising your right of access through subject access requests;
- applications to police forces, ACRO, the Crown Prosecution Service, and other prosecution agencies for the deletion of personal data and samples;
- applications for the deletion or amendment of police reports in circumstances where retention disproportionately interferes with private life;
- appealing decisions of public bodies not to delete personal data;
- appealing decisions of the DBS; and
- complaints to the ICO.
Our experience
Examples of our instructions include:
- Representing a regulated professional who had been wrongfully issued with a caution for a racially aggravated public order offence. Further to an application for record deletion on the grounds of a procedural defect, the caution was expunged from our client’s otherwise clean PNC record.
- Successfully applying for the deletion of an arrest record from the PNC in respect of a client who had previously been arrested on an extradition warrant (and successfully defended in subsequent proceedings).
- Acting for a client with links to the United States by applying for the deletion of records from the PNC, including the expungement of a caution for possession of Class A drugs which was preventing our client from emigrating to America. Following disclosure of material from the police in response to our Right of Access Request, we prepared written representations to challenge the issuing of the caution. As a result, our client’s criminal record was deleted.
- Successfully applying for the deletion of all records relating to our client’s arrest from PNC and biometric databases, in respect of a client who had been arrested and subsequently acquitted at trial on historic sexual allegations. We submitted that despite the request for deletion not fitting squarely within the grounds for deletion guidance issued by ACPO, the unique circumstances of the case and acquittal were such that all entries relating to this matter should be removed from our client’s PNC records on public interest grounds.
- Successfully applying for a sixth form student’s record to be deleted in relation to an allegation of rape. Detailed representations prepared in relation to the substantive investigation and setting out reasons why no crime had been committed as well as why it would be contrary to the public interest to retain such data.
Our reputation
BCL has long been top-ranked by the major legal directories in the area of Crime and is currently ranked as follows:
- Band 1 – Chambers and Partners, Crime
- Tier 1 – Legal 500: Crime
- Leading Firm – The Times Best Law Firms: Financial Crime & Fraud & Regulatory