Subject Access Request to South Wales Police

South Wales Police 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 and email address above usable routes rather than general enquiry points. Nothing in the force's request section publishes either of them: that section offers a request "by telephone, email, by post, or in person" and then supplies no number, no address and no mailbox for any of the three. The data protection function you are writing to is shared. The privacy notice describes the contact as the Joint Data Protection Lead Officer for South Wales Police and Gwent Police, so one office covers two separate forces. That matters if your request spans both areas, and it means a reply may come from an office that also answers for Gwent. It does not change who holds the records: you have to ask the force that dealt with you, and which police record you need sets out how to work that out. The force publishes the whole of this route in Welsh as well as English, and its Welsh Language Standards page says correspondence received in Welsh will be answered in Welsh and that writing in Welsh will not lead to a delay. The Welsh application form is a real Welsh form rather than a handoff to an English one, so a request can be made end to end in Welsh. The Welsh pages are not a straight translation of the English ones, though. When this page was checked, one section that appears only on the Welsh side gave a different force's data protection contact details. Take the address and mailbox above, which come from the force's English privacy notice, rather than any contact block you meet part-way through the Welsh route. 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 the force's disclosure team by email. 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. Identification has to be scanned or copied in colour, because the force 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 force publishes three different response times across three 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 one month plus a further two months in the privacy notice. One calendar month is the statutory period, extendable by up to two further months, and 30 days is the shortest of the three readings. Arrests, cautions and convictions sit on the Police National Computer nationally, and the force says those requests go to ACRO Criminal Records Office, free, rather than to it. A request to South Wales Police 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. A collision report is a separate and chargeable route with its own form. The force no longer supplies paper booklet collision reports, charges a non-refundable search fee before it starts work and a second, larger non-refundable fee for further disclosure, and takes payment by cheque or BACS against a printed form. None of that applies to a subject access request, which is free. One thing the privacy notice tells you that the request pages do not: the force says it may be able to see what you type into an online form even if you never submit it, because the site saves part-completed forms periodically. Worth knowing before you draft a request in the browser rather than in a letter. If you would rather write, our free letter template produces a letter you can post. The force 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.