‘Revision of disclosure guidelines will reduce burden on officers’

26 October 2022

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) says it’s confident the latest revision of disclosure guidelines will reduce the burden on officers.

Now Suffolk Police Federation secretary, Ben Hudson, chair of the Police Federation National Detectives’ Forum (PFNDF), has called for the revised principles to be rolled out across forces and for members to be given “meaningful and detailed” training on them.

Ben, who is leading the Federation’s work on the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) disclosure guidance, known as DG6, that came into effect in January last year, said: “I’m confident that the revised guidance, applied correctly, will reduce the redaction burden on police officers while also complying with the legal framework.”

The latest revision comes after the Federation launched its #SimplifyDG6 campaign in August.

The campaign followed the Attorney General’s review, which recognised that some of the shortcomings led to significant pressure on police officers regarding the submission of case files to the CPS for charging decisions.

However, the review failed to make any recommendation to immediately mitigate the impact on officers.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has since worked with the Federation through the PFNDF and has now produced the revised Joint Principles for Redaction. 

They’ve been developed by the CPS and the NPCC Disclosure Portfolio setting out their joint position on how police officers and prosecutors should approach data protection responsibilities.

The Federation said that the revised guidance should further help officers comply with the Data Protection Act as the redaction of personal information is necessary when sharing information with CPS, including the pre-charge stage.

The revised principles are supported by legal advice from a King’s Counsel (KC) specialising in information law to ensure they’re legally robust and have been endorsed by the co-chairs of the Joint Operational Improvement Board (JOIB). 

The main changes are: 

• New Supporting Guidance to aid redaction decision-making, including how and when non-redaction can be justified on the grounds of disproportionality. To withstand any legal challenges, it’s important such decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, with the decision documented and approved at inspector rank or above. 
• Updated FAQs following feedback on common disputes – changing approaches to data minimisation in favour of pragmatism, including when to consider the redaction of occupations, dates of births, vehicle registration numbers, suspects not charged and names of potential witnesses from witness statements. Given the volume of data breaches documented for these categories, the Federation expects to see a significant reduction in the volume of redaction required following these changes.

Ben explained: “It’s pertinent that the revised principles are rolled out swiftly by chief constables and the CPS to serve its purpose.

“We’re asking that meaningful and detailed training is provided at the force level to all our members to assist in understanding the material they need to redact as part of evidence disclosure even at the pre-charge stage.

“We also ask that detailed and legally specific training is delivered to inspectors to ensure they fully understand the requirements when signing off the need for non-redaction and explain their rationale as to why they consider it disproportionate.  

“We’ll continue to champion the cause of our members and highlight the impact of case file building on policing and justice delivery.

“We’ll carefully watch and consult with members across the country to see how much mitigation these joint principles bring to the huge task that redaction currently is for our members.

“It’s still our position that there’s an urgent need for amending the Data Protection Act and we’re working with partner agencies in this direction. We hope to formally engage with the Attorney General’s office in early 2023 to see how these concerns can be addressed.”