Part 5: Data Protection and Privacy Logging of law enforcement processing Section 82: Logging of law enforcement processing
The DPA 2018 introduced a requirement in section 62 that competent authorities keep logs of their processing activities including the collection, alteration, consultation, disclosure, combination, and erasure of personal data.
	The purposes for which these logs may be used are set out in subsection (4) of section 62 DPA 2018. One key purpose is self-monitoring, including for the purpose of conducting internal disciplinary hearings. This may, for example, arise where an officer or member of police staff is suspected of inappropriately accessing a police record. The logs of consultation and disclosure must record, as far as possible, the identity of the person consulting or disclosing the personal data and the recipients of the personal data. It must also record, the date and time the personal data was consulted, or disclosed, and the justification for doing so.
	Section 82 of this Act removes the requirement for a competent authority to record a ‘justification’ in the logs when consulting or disclosing personal data. This is because it is unlikely that a person accessing records inappropriately would record an honest justification. It is also because it is technologically challenging for systems, which are used for law enforcement purposes, to adopt a function which captures the justification.