Home Office vows to change law to protect victims of sexual assault from ‘invasive’ personal record requests

The Home Office has vowed to change the law to protect the privacy of victims of sexual assault after a consultation found requests for personal records are “invasive” and unnecessary. Data such as medical records, therapy notes, and their personal phones are often requested by police, prosecutors and defence lawyers.

The consultation was launched to learn more about problems surrounding police requests for third party material (TPM). There were around 400 responses to the consultation, including from police, prosecutors, lawyers, victims and campaign groups.

In the report’s foreword, setting out the findings and the Government’s response, Minister for Safeguarding, Sarah Dines,  said: “The responses to the consultation suggest that this aspect of the criminal justice system is not functioning effectively.

“Victims of some of the most traumatic crimes are having significant amounts of their personal records unnecessarily requested, and the lack of clarity in these requests is causing delays to investigations and access to justice for victims. Indeed, victim groups have reported that this invasion of privacy can be a contributing factor to victims withdrawing from the process.”