Subject Access Request to Durham Constabulary

Durham Constabulary runs subject access through its Information Rights and Disclosure Unit at force headquarters, Aykley Heads. The online form is the route the force puts first, and Durham says a request can also be made by telephone, email, post or in person. The request is free, and you can write it yourself rather than paying anyone to prepare it. Three of Durham's own pages give the deadline three different ways: the privacy notice says within one month, the request page says one month or three months in complex cases, and the information rights page says within 30 days with up to two months extra. They agree in substance — the force has one month to respond, extendable to three where a request is complex or numerous — but 30 days and one calendar month are not the same period. Durham may also restrict what it releases, and when a force can refuse or limit access is set out separately. When the reply arrives you can check whether the response is complete. The data protection line, 0191 375 2582, is the Information Rights and Disclosure Unit's shared freedom of information and data protection number. The force's freedom of information page says to choose Option 2; its privacy notice, which is where the number is published beside the postal and email routes, does not mention the menu at all. Durham also publishes 101 extension 762582 as an internal alternative, which cannot be dialled from a single link. Durham says children can apply for their own data where they understand the right and make the request freely, and that it will reply to the child directly, accepting a parent or guardian where that is in the child's best interests. Retention, from Durham's own Retention and Disposal Schedule and advice pages. Body-worn video, which the schedule files under "Bodycam / Headcam/Webcam" rather than under any phrase containing "body worn", is kept 30 days where it is non-evidential and a minimum of six years where it relates to a crime. ANPR reads are held for one year, with most staff able to search them only for the first 90 days from capture, and up to a year for serious, major or counter-terrorism investigations on a senior officer's authorisation. CCTV produced by a force system, custody images included, is 31 days where non-evidential, with evidential material retained under MoPI instead. If what you want is near one of those limits, ask early. Several things people ask a force for are not subject access requests. A police certificate for a visa, emigration or residency comes from ACRO and is chargeable. An employer's check is a basic DBS check, and Durham states twice that it is an offence for an employer to require a subject access request as a condition of employment, so no employer can require you to make one. A collision report is a separate route carrying a £41.90 search fee, though Durham says you can download your own copy free if you filed the report on its site. DNA and fingerprint deletion also goes to ACRO. CCTV of yourself recorded by a shop or a council has to be asked of whoever owns that system. None of this is a criminal record check, and if you are not sure which record you need, start with which police record you actually need. Durham publishes nothing about requests for the records of someone who has died. Data protection rights end at death, so a subject access request is not the instrument and this service cannot take those requests. If the matter happened in a neighbouring force area, apply to that force: Cleveland Police covers Hartlepool, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough, and North Yorkshire Police covers North Yorkshire and the City of York.

Made under Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (law enforcement processing), and UK GDPR Article 15 for non-policing purposes

A request to a police force is not a straightforward Article 15 request. Where a force is processing your data as a competent authority for law enforcement purposes, your right of access comes from section 45 of the Data Protection Act 2018 rather than the UK GDPR. The practical effect is similar — you are entitled to a copy of your personal data — but the restrictions available to the force are different and broader.

The same force may hold data about you under both regimes at once. Intelligence entries, custody records and incident logs sit under Part 3; an employment file, a firearms licence application or a complaint you made as a member of the public may sit under the UK GDPR. A single request can cover both, and the force should deal with each under the correct regime.

Police records sit in two places, and which one you want decides who you ask. Arrests, charges, cautions, convictions and firearms certificates are held nationally on the Police National Computer, and requests for that national record are handled centrally rather than by your local force. Everything a particular investigation generated stays with the force that dealt with it: custody records and custody photographs, body-worn video, 999 and 101 recordings, statements you or others gave, interview notes, and reports of incidents you reported. A national request will not return local material and a local request will not return the national record, so if you want both you make two requests. Scottish records sit on a separate national system again.

This is separate from a criminal record certificate, and which body issues one depends on where you are. In England and Wales it is the Disclosure and Barring Service, whose basic check guidance for applicants explains what you get; in Scotland it is Disclosure Scotland, whose Level 1 and Level 2 disclosures replaced basic, standard and enhanced disclosures on 1 April 2025 — mygov.scot sets out the levels; in Northern Ireland it is AccessNI, and nidirect lists the types of AccessNI check. ACRO issues police certificates for emigration and visa applications. None of these is a subject access request, and people routinely make one when they wanted a certificate instead, then lose months finding out.

• Incident and crime reports where you are named
• Custody records and detention logs
• Intelligence entries and markers held against you
• Body-worn video and 999 or 101 call recordings
• Records of stop and search encounters

Deadline. An organisation must respond without undue delay and within one month. It may extend by up to two further months where the request is complex or you have made a number of requests, but it must tell you within the first month that it is doing so, and why.

Cost. There is normally no fee. A reasonable fee may only be charged where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, or where you ask for further copies.

Proving who you are. An organisation may ask you to verify your identity, but only where it has reasonable doubts about who you are, and it should ask for the minimum needed. Where it needs further information to deal with your request, the one-month clock pauses until you provide it.

How hard they have to look. An organisation has to carry out a reasonable and proportionate search — not an exhaustive one. What counts as reasonable depends on the volume of information, the difficulty of locating it, and the size and resources of the organisation. This is a common reason for a partial response, and it is worth being specific about what you want.

If they ignore you. Complain to the organisation first. Since 19 June 2026 every organisation has had a legal duty to give you a clear way to raise a data protection complaint, to acknowledge it within 30 days, to look into it properly and to tell you the outcome. If it does not, or the answer is incomplete, you can then complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.