FOI 0751-2025/26- SAR policy

Request:

URL / Quote:

• URL: https://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/north-yorkshire-police/our-policies-and-procedures/legal-services/data-protection---subject-access-procedure.pdf (North Yorkshire Police)

• Quote:

“Prohibition of Requirement to Produce Relevant Records (previously Enforced Subject Access) DPA 2018, Part 7 section 184 states that it is an offence for a person to require another person to provide information in connection with recruitment, continued employment or for the provision of goods or services.”

North Yorkshire Police’s Subject Access Procedure (see URL) states:

“Prohibition of Requirement to Produce Relevant Records (previously Enforced Subject Access) DPA 2018, Part 7 section 184 states that it is an offence …”

Please supply:

Q1. All internal policy, guidance, instruction or training material referring to section 184 DPA 2018 and its application to SARs or Third-Party SARs (TPSARs).

Q2. Any legal advice or briefing note which gave rise to the above wording or decision to publish it.

Q3. The number of TPSARs received by the force since 1 January 2022.

Q4. Of those, the number where section 184 was cited in correspondence or decision record as a reason for refusal or warning.

Q5. A copy of any template or standard letter used when referencing section 184 DPA 2018 in a response to SAR/TPSAR requests.

Q6. The number of approaches or reports the constabulary has made to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) concerning alleged “enforced subject access” since 1 January 2022.

Q7. The process or procedure applied when the force believes an approach may fall within section 184, including how that decision is made and by whom.

Q8. The criteria or rationale by which the force deems a TPSAR to fall under section 184 DPA 2018 when the request does not seek health or criminal-record data. 

Response: 

Extent of Searches to Locate Information

Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information. 

Decision

I am not obliged to provide you with a response to your request pursuant to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.

Section 12(1) applies to your request as the cost of complying with your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of identifying and retrieving any relevant information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Our information retrieval process generally relies on a computer ran report which captures any information recorded upon the surface of a record or within specified fields. Where relevant information is held deeper in the record, or outside of a specified field, a manual assessment is required to retrieve that information.

In order to retrieve the requested information, it would be necessary to manually review all SARs from 01 January 2022 to establish if section 184 was cited in the decision/correspondence. A further manual review would be need for all ICO matters since 01 January 2022 to establish if it related to alleged “enforced subject access. This manual process would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, we may be able to provide information for parts 1, 2, 3, 5,7 and 8 if you resubmit and omit parts 4 and 6.  If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.