Victim information requests for purposes of a criminal investigation etc.
When investigating a crime, the police and other law enforcement authorities can request information about a victim from a third party to support a reasonable line of enquiry. This information is commonly referred to as ‘third party material’ or ‘TPM’ and may include, but is not limited to, any relevant medical, education or social service records.
	The Government’s End to End Rape Review found that requests for third party material are sometimes unnecessary and disproportionate, and focused on victim credibility. Responses to the ‘Police Requests for Third Party Material Consultation’ (June to August 2022) further corroborated these findings and demonstrated support for legislative clarification. Subsequently, the Government committed to legislate to ensure that any third party material requested by an authorised person is necessary and proportionate to the investigation and to create a code of practice to ensure consistency across requests.
	These measures in the Act define certain conditions authorised persons (including the police, British Transport Police and the National Crime Agency), the service police and the Service Police Complaints Commissioner (SPCC), must meet before making the victim information request.
	Under these measures an authorised person, the service police and the Service Police Complaints Commissioner, will have a duty to only request information on victims of criminal conduct where it is necessary and proportionate in pursuit of a reasonable line of enquiry. These persons must also notify the victim about whom the information is being requested or other relevant person (such as a parent or guardian or appropriate adult) for example in the case of children, missing or vulnerable persons. This includes a written notice detailing what information is being sought, why, and how it will be used. The authorised person will also have a duty to provide clear and detailed information to accompany victim information requests to third parties, unless it would be inappropriate to do so. This must include clear details about the information being sought and the reason why, as well as how the material will be used. The measures also impose a duty to have regard to the accompanying code of practice with the intention of ensuring that police requests for victim information are necessary and proportionate. When considering a request for victims' counselling records (a specific type of TPM of particular sensitivity), an authorised person will only be able to make such a request where the records sought are likely to have substantial probative value to a reasonable line of enquiry being pursued or to be pursued. Additionally, the measures require the code (i) to include a rebuttable presumption that requests for counselling records are not necessary and proportionate for a law enforcement purpose and (ii) to prescribe the steps that must be taken in reaching any decision to rebut that presumption. Lastly, the Secretary of State will be required to review the operation of these additional safeguards applicable to counselling records three years after they come into force.