Fed secretary hopeful changes will be made to data protection legislation

15 August 2023

Suffolk Police Federation secretary Ben Hudson says there’s “a glimmer of hope” amendments could be made to data protection legislation which would cut thousands of hours from officers’ workloads

Ben, who is also chair of the Police Federation National Detectives’ Forum (PFNDF), is hopeful the proposed changes to current legislation would free up officers’ time and save valuable resources.

Under the plans, police officers and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) would be exempt from certain data protection principles so they can share un-redacted data with each other when making charging decisions.

An amendment to the Data Protection and Data Information (No 2) Bill in May, which seeks to adjust the Data Protection Act 2018, has been tabled by Jane Hunt and Peter Aldous, the Conservative MPs for Loughborough and Waveney respectively.

“They aptly understand the hardships of thousands of police officers and they're calling on the Government to amend the data protection law to strengthen and expedite justice delivery,” said Ben, who is leading the PFNDF’s work on the issue. 

And as the first anniversary of the launch of the Federation’s #SimplifyDG6 campaign approaches on 30 August, Ben said he was hopeful that support in Westminster could see changes to the current legislation that would free up officers’ time and save valuable resources.

Ben said: “The amendment would result in cutting thousands of hours from police officer workloads and save valuable resources where we have officers spending incredulous amounts of time meticulously reviewing and redacting material, even before the CPS makes a charging decision, thereby allowing them to focus on other policing priorities and being visible within their communities.”

Ben Hudson

Labour recently proposed that it would force police to recruit detectives directly from business if it won the next General Election because of a shortage of investigators.

But Ben said the amendment to data protection legislation would help to ease some of the problems resulting from a shortage of investigators without turning to the private sector to directly recruit detectives.

“It is heartening to see lawmakers across party lines agree there is an urgent need to reform the data protection law to help police officers utilise their time and resources more efficiently and effectively,” he said.

“The Government tells us it supports the amendment, but these words have been given in the absence of visible and time-bound action.

“The principles of consensual policing on which our police service rests, demands a steadfast political will of the Government of the day in supporting and providing police officers with the right resources and environment to keep the public safe and uphold the law.

“Unnecessary and problematic red tape must be cut when addressing matters of public safety, and both police officers and the public await the Government to exhibit its commitment by endorsing the amendment to the Bill and see it through the due legislative process when Parliament resumes business on 4 September after the summer recess.” 

Read Ben’s comments in full.