Subject Access Request to Lancashire Constabulary

The force you are asking is Lancashire Constabulary. Most people search for it as Lancashire Police, and the force uses that name loosely itself — on its news site and its social accounts — but its own pages, its logo and its data protection notice all say Constabulary, and the controller is formally the Chief Constable of Lancashire Constabulary. Either name will find the right force; the request goes to the same department. The constabulary asks you to make a subject access request through its own online form, and it is free. Its privacy notice also says you can request access to your personal data "using the contact details in this privacy notice", which is what makes the postal address, email address and telephone number above usable routes. Nothing in the force's request section publishes any of them: that section offers a request "by telephone, email, by post, or in person", and no page in it tells you where to post one. The telephone number above is a data protection line rather than a switchboard. It appears on exactly one page of the constabulary's site, in the same block as its data protection mailbox and postal address, and nowhere else. Calls about anything other than your data rights should go to 101, or 01772 614444 from outside the UK. The postal address is published as a PO Box. The constabulary's headquarters site is Saunders Lane, Hutton, Preston, and the same postcode is used for both, so a letter addressed either way reaches the same place. If you would rather write than use the form, our free letter template produces one you can send. The online route opens by asking why you want the information, and four of the five answers lead somewhere that is not a subject access request: a visa or emigration goes to an ACRO police certificate, an employer goes to a basic DBS check, a legal aid application goes to GOV.UK, and a family court case goes to a route the constabulary says must be used by a solicitor. Only "other personal reasons" reaches the subject access form. You never have to justify a request for your own data, so that is the branch to take if none of the others describes what you actually want. Two things about the online form the constabulary discloses in its privacy notice and nowhere near the form itself. It says it may be able to see what you type even if you never submit, because the site saves part-completed forms periodically. And it says completed online forms are sent automatically to the national police IT team responsible for the National Police Chiefs' Council Digital Policing Portfolio as well as to the constabulary. Neither is a reason not to use the form; both are reasons to write a letter instead if you would rather the request stayed between you and this force. Identification has to be scanned or copied in colour, because the constabulary says it does not accept black and white. Where a request covers body-worn video, CCTV or a custody photograph, it asks specifically for a passport or photo driving licence rather than any two documents. The online form also makes an email address compulsory, which matters if you were planning to be contacted only by post. The constabulary publishes four different response-time wordings across its pages: one month or three months in complex cases on the page in front of the form, "usually within 30 days" plus up to two months extra on its information rights page, and in the privacy notice normally one month unless an exemption applies or it extends for complexity, with rectification and erasure described as one month unless complex. One calendar month is the statutory period, extendable by up to two further months. Arrests, cautions and convictions sit on the Police National Computer nationally, and the constabulary says those requests go to ACRO Criminal Records Office, free, rather than to it. A request to Lancashire Constabulary returns what this force holds — incident reports, custody records, body-worn video, 999 and 101 recordings — so if you want both you make both requests. Which police record you need sets out the difference. Collision reports are not available to you here at all. The constabulary routes all road traffic collision disclosure through a separate commercial portal open to solicitors and insurance agents, with its own published fees, and says a search can take a considerable time and asks people not to chase it. If you were in a collision and want what the force holds about you, a subject access request is the route, and it is free. The constabulary publishes no retention periods. Its privacy notice says the retention schedule is available on request from its Data Protection Department, so if how long something is kept matters to your request, ask for the schedule as well as the data. The constabulary states that an employer cannot ask an employee or contractor to make a request for their personal data as a condition of their employment or contract, and that it is an offence for anyone providing goods, facilities or services to ask you to do so. Nobody can require you to do this.

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.