Member

The point of the amendment is that the existing data protection legislation requires our police forces to spend huge amounts of time and resources, first, in going through information that has been gathered by investigating officers to identify every single item of personal data contained in that information; secondly, on deciding whether it is necessary or, in many cases, strictly necessary for the CPS to consider each item of personal data when making its charging decision; and then, thirdly, on redacting every item of personal data that does not meet that test. I ask the Committee to imagine, with things such as body cameras being worn by the police today, just how much personal data is being collected by every officer. The Police Federation and the National Police Chiefs’ Council estimate that the national cost of this redaction exercise is approximately £5.6 million per annum, and that, since 1 January 2021, 365,000 policing hours have been consumed with that exercise.