Police Law Blog European Decisions Statutory Materials

Sharing data with crime reduction partnerships

R (on the application of M) v Chief Constable of Sussex [2021] EWCA Civ 42 is an important decision from the Court of Appeal regarding an information sharing agreement (“ISA”) between a police force and a local business crime reduction partnership (“BCRP”). The ISA was held not to breach the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”) and the sharing of information that revealed a vulnerability to child sexual exploitation (“CSE”) was held not to be in breach of data protection rights. The case indicates the approach that the courts may take when asked to scrutinise information sharing agreements and policy documents where the police seek to share data with other organisations for the purpose of reducing crime and disorder.