Subject access request missing information(?)

[oldmom9]

Hello I am new here and was hoping someone may be able to help.

Around 8 months ago my house was searched by police looking for drugs and my son (20 years old) was asked to attend a voluntary interview.

They didn't find any drugs and said the reason for the search was that they were given "information" that he was dealing. However they did find what they called drugs "paraphernalia".

My son had been on a night out with friends and taken something which he has admitted to me. Since no drugs were found the police did not take the matter any further and gave him "words of advice", so he didn;t get a caution or anything.

Now, 8 months later he is looking for work after finishing his college course. He is concerned that it may show up on jobs with enhanced disclosure. So we applied for a subject access request from the police, but there is nothing on there about the drugs search or the voluntary interview. We did ask for everything that they had on the police computer and the email states "I refer to your recent subject access request for disclosure of any data held in your name on the Police National Computer (PNC)." then gives the details in another document.

My questions:

1. Could he still be under investigation and they have kept it from the report?

1. Could they have simply decided not to add it to the police computer?

1. Should I ask them to check and risk them adding it on to their information? i.e. it was overlooked.

Thanks in advance for any advice, the purpose was so he could explain if it came up at a job interview. Now we don't know whether it will or it wont which is causing us some concern.

Hi @oldmom9,

Would you like us to move this thread over to our Legal Matters topic? There may be some people able to give you some advice there.

Just hit the Report button if so, and we'll move it over for you.

Yes please, thanks.

The police are exempt from the provisions of GDPR relating to subject access requests if compliance would prejudice the purposes of processing. So yes, he could still be under investigation or there may be some other justification for not including the information in a subject access request (e.g. disclosure may involve revealing personal data about someone else). It could still show up on an enhanced disclosure. Of course, whether or not an enhanced disclosure is required depends on the job. Even then, the police can only include information about the investigation if it is relevant to the job.

Thank you for the reply. Would it be unlikely that they simply decided not to write any information about the incident on his file? Or is everything of this nature generally added?

I'd be surprised if they had a warrant to search your property and information that your son was a possible drug dealer that there would be no record of it.

I think if he was going into youth work for example that this is the sort of unofficial thing that might be noted on an enhanced check, particularly as it occured very recently. Has your son any idea of where the information has come from?

No idea, the police said "they had been given intelligence from another agency" and didn't give me any other explanation. It didn't sound like it came from a person he knows but maybe was seen around people he shouldn't have been with. But even then I don't see how a search could take place under those circumstances unless they captured something on camera or something.

I have re-read the documents I was sent and they actually say that:

"If you have requested information which may be held on a local police system, that will be returned to you under separate cover by the appropriate police force. ACRO does not have access to information held on local police systems."

So I'm thinking it may come as a seperate document.

It may or they may decide that it is subject to the GDPR exemption.

You may find this document interesting. It is statutory guidance for the police on providing information for enhanced DBS checks.