Subject Access Request to West Midlands Police

West Midlands Police asks you to make your request through its online form, and that is the route it processes. Its own guidance says a request can also be made by telephone, email, post or in person, but the request pages themselves publish no address and no number. The postal address and email above are the ones the force publishes for its Data Protection Officer in its privacy notice, which says to use those contact details to exercise your right of access. That notice carries no last-updated date. The online form gives an average completion time of five minutes, and each step has to be finished within two hours. Two of the force's own pages give slightly different timescales - one says a month, or three months for a complex case, and another says 30 days with up to two further months. One calendar month from receipt, extendable by up to two further months where the request is complex, is the statutory position. The privacy notice gives the Data Protection Officer's telephone contact as 101, asking for the Data Protection team. 101 is the national non-emergency police number rather than a subject access line, so it is not listed above as a way of sending a request. The force covers seven local policing areas: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton. West Mercia Police is a different force with a separate ICO registration, Z4894230, and is easily confused with this one. Getting DNA, fingerprints, an arrest record or an out-of-court resolution deleted is a separate process, not a subject access request. West Midlands Police says the ACRO Criminal Records Office runs record deletion on its behalf and that enquiries about removing data should go direct to ACRO rather than to the force. Court convictions are not eligible for deletion. A road traffic collision report is a different request again, and it is not free. The force handles collision disclosure through its Traffic Investigation Unit on a downloadable disclosure request form, charges a search fee payable by BACS against a reference it issues when it receives the request, says further fees may be payable if more information is needed, and warns you may be asked to obtain a court order before it discloses. It also states that it is working through a backlog of initial requests. If you are involved in family law proceedings, the force runs a separate advance-notice process so that information can be shared with the court and other parties, such as children's social care, before the hearing date. It starts from the same request pages. West Midlands Police states that an employer or prospective employer cannot require you to make a subject access request as a condition of employment or of a contract, and that the same applies to anyone providing you with goods, facilities or services. Its guidance points employers to a basic Disclosure and Barring Service check instead. The force publishes its own ICO registration number, Z4894289, on its data protection page, and that is the number shown above. The ICO register lists a different contact against the same registration, information_security@westmidlands.police.uk. Use the details the force publishes on its own site.

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.