This privacy notice tells you how the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) under the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) obtains, holds, uses and discloses personal data. It describes the steps we take to ensure data is protected, and your rights to know, see and challenge how your data is used.

It doesn’t contain information about how your local force uses personal data, but you can find similar privacy notices on their websites, with guidance on how to exercise your rights through them.

The Data Protection Act sets out eight principles for the fair and lawful obtaining, recording, use and security of personal information. The act works in two ways;

1. it gives you, as an individual, certain rights
2. it ensures that we, as an organisation, are open about how the information is stored and used.

Set out below are the principles we apply when we handle personal information. 

• We collect and use personal information so that we can carry out our legal and legitimate functions. These functions are defined by legislation, common law and best practice.
  
  
• We will use the information we collect to;
  
  
  • prevent and prosecute offenders
  • protect life and property
  • maintain law and order
  • give assistance to members of the public
  • we may use your personal information to help use evaluate our performance and effectiveness and may contact you to ask you to give us your opinion on the services we provide. We will use the information you provide to improve our services wherever we can
  • where possible and appropriate, you will be informed of the reason why we are holding your personal information. Personal information may be held without your knowledge or consent, when this is necessary for purposes such as the prevention or detection of crime, the prosecution or apprehension of offenders, national security and public safety
  • all personal information we handle is in accordance with the Data Protection Act 
  • we collect and use information only for policing and associated purposes. We will not use or disclose your information for any other purposes without your consent unless we are required to do so by law or it is in the over-riding public interest to do so
  • we may give information to agents or contractors so that they can provide the facilities we need. In such cases, legally binding contracts covering the use and security of your information will be put in place
  • we will share personal information only when it is lawful to do so and when your rights have been fully considered
  • we take great care to ensure the information we hold is accurate, kept up-to-date and is destroyed when no longer required
  • we use a variety of physical, technical and procedural measures to protect personal information from unauthorised or accidental disclosure, loss or corruption
  • our staff are trained in the appropriate procedures and policies for correct handling of personal information
  • we will normally provide a copy of any information we hold about you upon request. If you believe the information we hold is inaccurate or misleading, it will be checked and corrected if appropriate
  • if you are unhappy with the way in which we have handled your personal information, you can complain to our Data Protection Officer or Professional Standards Department 
  • we reserve the right to gather information relating to site usage. Any information gathered is primarily for internal use to allow us to refine and improve the service we provide
  • this website contains links to other sites that are not owned or operated by us and as such, we are not responsible for their content or privacy practices
  • by continuing to use this website, you are considered as understanding and agreeing to the contents of this statement
  • children under 16 years of age should not submit any information to any website without prior consent of a parent or carer.

Information provided to our website through contact forms is treated in confidence and we will not disclose any information to third parties, unless required to do so in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018.

How we use cookies

Cookies are used on this website to improve user experience and for essential functionality; they are not used for identification purposes.

Learn more about how we manage cookies.

Our data controller

When the NPCC decides why and how personal data is used, it is the 'controller' of that data and is required to ensure that it handles this data in accordance with the law. The NPCC takes this responsibility very seriously and takes great care to ensure your personal data is processed appropriately to maintain public trust and confidence in the police.

You can contact the NPCC at:

50 Broadway
London
SW1H 0BL
United Kingdom

Email: [email protected]

You can also contact the NPCC Data Protection Officer directly via [email protected].

Freedom of information requests

For requests for information from local forces, you can find their FOI contact details by following links from the Police UK website.

If you’ve explored the NPCC website and would like to submit a Freedom of Information Request for information relating to the business of NPCC, ACRO or the National Police Units, you can contact the NPCC Freedom of Information Officer at [email protected].

Raising a concern

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the independent authority responsible within the UK for ensuring we comply with data protection legislation. Further information about the ICO and your rights can be found at on the ICO website.

You have the right to ask the ICO to investigate a concern you may have with any organisation which is or may be handling your personal data. For example, you may be concerned that your data has been used unlawfully, that it has been withheld from you, or that a controller who has no lawful basis to use your data has not erased it when asked. The ICO has powers to inspect what we hold and decide whether we have acted lawfully or not. They have powers to order remedial action and to enforce the lawful handling of personal data.

If you are dissatisfied with a response from the NPCC, we respectfully ask that you submit your first complaint to us and we will attempt to resolve the problem or explain why we believe our actions are lawful. Your rights are not affected by doing so and you may choose to speak to the ICO at any time.

If we cannot resolve a problem to your satisfaction, we will always remind you that you may take your concerns to the ICO for an independent decision.

The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Changes to our privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated in November 2023.