Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they have that police forces complied with the requirement in section 77(7) of the Data Protection Act 2018 to inform the Information Commissioner of international transfers of personal data, in the period from May 2018 until that requirement was amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

As the police are operationally independent it is the responsibility of Chief Constables to ensure that any contracts for services and supplies meet both their legal and security requirements.

Moreover, the use of data by the police for policing purposes is largely governed by Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 which sets out requirements for the use of processors, and what contractual terms must be included. Section 59(7) of the Act makes provision for the international transfer of personal data by a processor acting under the instruction of a controller.