Police force

Subject Access Request to Leicestershire Police

What Leicestershire Police holds about you, where to send the request, and what to expect back.

GetMySAR is an independent service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of Leicestershire Police. The contact details below are published so you can make a request yourself free of charge.

Where to send your request

Verified 30 August 2026

Postal address: Data Protection and Information Security Leicestershire Police Force Headquarters St John's Enderby Leicester LE19 2BX
Email: data.protection@leics.police.uk
Their own SAR form: Open Leicestershire Police’s request form
ICO registration: Z4887579
ID they ask for: Leicestershire Police says a request must give your full name, date of birth, address and a clear description of the information you want, and that it will ask you to confirm your identity. Its downloadable form is the stricter of its two statements: copies of two official documents, one clearly showing your name, date of birth and signature — it gives a birth certificate, driving licence or passport as examples — and one showing your current postal address dated within the last three months, such as a bank statement, utility bill or rent agreement. If you have changed your name it asks for evidence of the change, such as a deed poll or marriage certificate. It says a photographic document helps, and asks you not to send originals because they will not be returned, while reserving the right to ask for original documents in some cases and saying it would return those by registered post. If you are asking for photographs or other images, it asks for a copy of photographic identification as well, and says failing to supply it may restrict what it can disclose. Where someone else could be identified in the information, it asks for that person's written agreement and two proofs of their identity. The route page states this more loosely, as at least two different official documents that between them prove your name, date of birth, current address and signature, with no recency rule. The ICO's position is that identity checks must be reasonable and proportionate.

Source: Leicestershire Police published information. Organisations change these details — tell us if this is out of date.

Specific to Leicestershire Police

Leicestershire Police runs two data protection mailboxes and only one of them is the request route. Section 11.2 of its privacy notice, the right of access section, says you can make the request by emailing data.protection@leics.police.uk or by writing to the Data Protection Team. DPO@leics.police.uk is offered separately, in the notice's introduction, for questions about how the force uses your information. Use the first. The force publishes its postal address several ways and they name different teams. The subject access route page gives the one above, and it is the page the force's own advice tool sends you to. The privacy notice gives Data Protection Team, Information Management Unit, Police Headquarters, St Johns, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 2BX. The downloadable form gives Leicestershire Police, Data Protection Dept., St John's, Enderby, Leicester LE19 2BX. The building and the postcode are the same in all of them, so any will arrive. Body-worn video does not last long, and this is the fact most likely to decide whether your request finds anything. Leicestershire Police's public factsheet on body-worn video says footage that is not evidential is automatically deleted after 31 days, and that anything marked evidential is kept for at least six years. One of the force's internal assessments gives 30 days in places rather than 31. CCTV of the force's own estate is kept for 30 days. So a request made a couple of months after an incident will usually find the record of it and not the footage, and asking quickly is worth more than asking well. The force lists several ways in — online, by email, by post, by telephone or in person — and then publishes no telephone number for making a request. The privacy notice gives 0116 248 5222 for the Data Protection Team in a block for people with concerns about how their data is handled, and the form gives 101 extension 3385222 for advice on filling it in. 101 is the national non-emergency number used by every force in England and Wales. Neither is offered as the place to send the request itself. The request is free, but a paper copy is not. If you ask for your disclosure to be posted to you, the force charges £8 for the secure postage, payable by cheque to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire. Choosing secure email instead avoids it — though the force sends those through Egress, which asks you to create an account to open the message, and the third option, a password-protected disc, needs you to telephone the Information Management section for the password. The force's two statements of the response time do not quite match. The route page says the process can take up to 30 days; the form says a fully completed application with proof of identity will be answered within one calendar month, and that the force may extend by a further two months for complex or numerous requests. Thirty days is not a calendar month, and the legal position is one month, extendable by two more. Some things go through a different door. Records for family court proceedings are handled by the force's Disclosure Unit, and the page shows its address only as the word "email", so you cannot see it without checking the link. A collision report is a separate, chargeable route and not a subject access request: the force charges £46.40 for a self-report, £46.40 for third party details and £130.70 for a police report, adds a £32.20 search fee to every one, takes up to twelve weeks from the date it banks your payment, and releases nothing until the case is closed. Firearms licensing records have no separate route — a request for a certificate file goes through the ordinary one. If you want your national criminal record rather than what this force holds locally, the force sends you to ACRO for a police certificate and to the Disclosure and Barring Service if an employer has asked. Its form says so in terms, and says that an employer requiring you to use subject access instead is committing an offence under section 184 of the Data Protection Act 2018 — it asks whether anyone did, and offers to pass the details to the Information Commissioner's Office. There is a template letter if you would rather write than use the form, and other forces are listed on the police subject access request page.

Making a request to a police force

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.

What people commonly ask for

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

Watch out for

Section 45(4) DPA 2018 lets a force restrict access where disclosure would obstruct an inquiry, prejudice the prevention or detection of crime, harm public security, or affect the rights and freedoms of other people. A restriction has to be necessary and proportionate for the specific information at issue — it is not a reason to refuse the request as a whole, and the ICO's guidance on restricting the right of access under Part 3 sets out the test a force is supposed to apply.
Ongoing investigations are the most common ground for withholding. Records may become disclosable once proceedings conclude, and a force can tell you when it is worth asking again.
A force can refuse to confirm or deny that it holds anything at all, where confirming would defeat the purpose of the restriction. That is a recognised answer rather than an administrative failure.
Two exemptions sit alongside those restrictions: legal professional privilege — in Scotland, confidentiality of communications — which covers legal advice the force has taken, and safeguarding national security.
If a force does withhold something, it must normally tell you within a month that it has done so and why, and tell you that you can complain to the force, complain to the ICO, or ask a court to enforce the right. Silence is not one of the options.
Body-worn video and CCTV often contain other identifiable people, so expect redaction or blurring rather than full disclosure. And the right reaches your own personal data only — section 45 entitles you to personal data concerning you — so it is not a route to a recording of someone else, or to footage of an incident you had no part in.
Records about someone who has died are not a subject access request — data protection rights end at death, and unlike health records there is no Access to Health Records Act equivalent for policing. ACRO points people to a Freedom of Information request to the force that dealt with the matter. That is a different law with different tests, and the duty of confidence survives death, so it is the right door rather than a guaranteed answer.
It is a criminal offence under section 184 of the Data Protection Act 2018 for an employer, or for anyone providing goods, facilities or services to the public, to require you to obtain your own police record through a subject access request as a condition. Schedule 18 defines the records this covers by the bodies that hold them, and a record of a conviction or caution obtained from a chief constable is one of them. A job, a tenancy or an insurance policy made conditional on you producing your record this way is the offence, not a formality.

Your rights, whoever you are asking

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.

Send it to Leicestershire Police

You can do this yourself for free using the details above. If you would rather not handle the wording, the submission and the chasing, GetMySAR prepares, sends and follows up your request for a fixed £20 fee.

Free letter template Have GetMySAR handle it — £20

This page is general information about your right of access under UK data protection law. It is not legal advice. If your situation is complex or contested, consider speaking to a solicitor or contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office.