Subject Access Request to Sussex Police

Sussex Police asks you to apply through its online form, which takes about five minutes and has to be completed in one sitting within two hours. You do not have to use it: the force's privacy notice says you can request access to the personal data it holds using the contact details in that notice, which are the postal address and email above. What it does insist on is enough information to find your data, and it says a request that does not give enough will be slower. The force publishes its response time three times and in three different forms — "we usually respond within 30 days" but "it can take up to two months extra" on its rights page, "one month to respond to your request (or three months in complex cases)" on the form page, and "normally we will provide it within one month" in the privacy notice. They amount to the same thing: one month, extendable by two more. Sussex Police names both regimes as the source of the right, saying UK GDPR Article 15 and section 45 of the Data Protection Act 2018 give it to you. It is explicit about what it may hold back, listing disclosure that would affect the rights and freedoms of others, an impact on an ongoing investigation, national security, and a request that is clearly unfounded. It says that if it restricts access it will tell you why — and then adds that it will not tell you if saying so would undermine the reason for the restriction. Applying for someone else needs their signed permission on the force's third-party permissions form, and it says the signature must match the one on their identity document. A child can apply in their own right if they understand the right and are making the request freely, and the force says it will respond directly to the child, accepting and responding to a parent or guardian where that is in the child's best interests. Sussex Police says at the start of its form that the records you want may not be held by the force at all, and that a request goes to it or to the Criminal Records Office depending on what you are after. ACRO holds the national police record and issues police certificates for visas and emigration; a criminal record check for a job is a different process again and is not a subject access request.

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.