Data removal

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/25/007808/B

Version Date: 18/03/2025

The HR Operations and Information Management Departments have provided the following information.

Hello, it has come to my attention that some police forces remove data relating to personnel who are no longer working for them.

For example, if I asked in Sept 2024 how many officers had taken sick leave for mental health reasons in 2020 the response might be 200 - but if I asked exactly the same question in January 2025, that figure might change to 150 if 50 of those officers had since left the force.

Please could you let me know if your force carries out this practice, and if so, has it affected any of the data provided to my FOIs?

The Force retains data in accordance with its HR Privacy Notice and Retention of Records Guidance. Typically, this means that data is retained for seven years. The Force is currently working to complete a review of its data collection and management systems to ensure that records remain data protection compliant.

This means that data provided for FOI requests relating to the past seven years are unlikely to be affected.