Dyfed-Powys Police Data Breach – Can I Claim?
By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 5th December 2022. If you have suffered psychological or financial harm because of a Dyfed-Powys police data breach, you may be wondering if you’re eligible to claim compensation. This guide will explain what makes a valid police data breach compensation claim.
A guide on what you could do after a Dyfed-Powys police data breach
Dyfed-Powys police are the police force for the counties of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys. Their job is to prevent crime and safeguard the local community. Police forces collect personal data from their employees and individuals with whom they interact. For example, they may collect your personal data because you were the victim of a crime or made a noise complaint.
Organisations that process or hold your personal data should safeguard it. You may be eligible to make a data breach claim for compensation if you can prove that you suffered because of your personal data being involved in a breach. What’s more, you’d need to show that the organisation’s wrongful conduct caused the breach.
If you have evidence of a valid claim, why not get in touch? We could connect you with a solicitor to manage your claim to ensure you get the right amount of compensation you deserve.
Call Legal Expert today on 0800 073 8804 to speak to an advisor. Alternatively, you can start your claim online.
Select A Section
- What Are Dyfed-Powys Police Data Breaches?
- How Can The Police Breach Data Protection Laws?
- Dyfed-Powys Police Data Breach Statistics
- What Steps Could Victims Of Police Data Breaches Take?
- Breach Of Data Protection Compensation – How Much Could I Get?
- Why Choose A No Win No Fee Data Breach Solicitor?
- Get Advice On Claiming For A Dyfed-Powys Police Data Breach
What Are Dyfed-Powys Police Data Breaches?
A personal data breach is when personal data is unlawfully or accidentally lost, changed, destroyed, accessed or disclosed because of a breach of security. Personal data breaches can be deliberate or accidental.
Data breaches can happen if an employee makes an error. On the other hand, a malicious actor can cause a data breach if they hack into the police department’s database to steal data.
Data Protection Laws In The UK
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), organisations are supposed to take steps to prevent data breaches. The UK GDPR sits alongside the Data Protection Act 2018 as data protection legislation.
Organisations should invest in proper security systems to protect the personal data they store. And, where needed, they should ensure their staff is trained to handle personal data correctly. Departments could also train employees to recognise potential phishing attacks and scams.
If you suffer psychologically or financially because of a data breach, you may be eligible to claim compensation for a UK GDPR breach. However, you’d need to show that the organisation that held or processed your personal data caused the data breach to happen through wrongful conduct. For example, this could mean that they failed to provide online cyber security, or their staff weren’t trained properly in data protection, and this caused the breach.
If you have any questions about this guide on what you could do following a Dyfed-Powys police data breach, get in touch.
How Can The Police Breach Data Protection Laws?
Below, we look at some examples of how a personal data breach could take place.
- Criminals could carry out a cyberattack on a police department. If the police do not have a sufficient cyber security system, the criminals could gain unlawful access to the database.
- A police officer could lose a laptop containing unsecured personal information.
- A police officer working at a reception area may leave a file containing personal data on their desk. As a result, members of the public can read the contents.
- The police publish community safety information but neglect to redact information that identifies people who have made complaints about antisocial behaviour.
- Police officers wrongfully disclose information identifying the victim of a crime. Subsequently, the data breach could threaten the victim’s safety.
- An employer data breach can occur if an HR department attaches an employee’s personal information to an email and sends the email to individuals who are not authorised to receive the data.
Dyfed-Powys Police Data Breach Statistics
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is a public body responsible for upholding the public’s data protection rights. The Information Commissioner’s Office investigates organisations that have breached data protection law. And the ICO has the power to fine organisations that breach the privacy of personal data.
The ICO publishes data security incident trends every quarter. During the third quarter of 2021/22, the ICO received 2,404 reports of data breach incidents. Of these reported data breaches, 631 were cyber security incidents. And 1,773 of these reported data breach incidents were non-cyber security incidents.
What Steps Could Victims Of Police Data Breaches Take?
Following a potential Dyfed-Powys police data breach, there are some steps you could take.
If an organisation finds that they have breached your personal data, and this risks your rights and freedoms, they should report the error to the Information Commissioner’s Office. They should also notify you of the breach.
However, what should you do if you discover a police data breach? Please contact the relevant party and raise your concerns. Hopefully, the police department can resolve the matter internally. You can request that the police escalate your complaint if you don’t feel it is being dealt with properly.
If you believe that the police are not taking your data breach complaint seriously, you can raise your personal information concerns with the ICO. However, you must do so within three months of the final response from the police on the matter, or the ICO may not investigate.
If you have evidence and are eligible to claim compensation for a personal data breach under the UK GDPR, we could help. We could connect you with a No Win No Fee solicitor to help claim compensation for a police data loss or police data breach incident, for example.
Breach Of Data Protection Compensation – How Much Could I Get?
Those who are affected by a data breach could suffer various kinds of psychiatric injuries, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress. Data breaches can also have a negative financial impact. For instance, cyberattacks could result in the theft of financial data such as bank details. Consequently, the data breach victim may lose money and other assets.
If you are eligible to start a police data breach claim, you may seek a data breach compensation calculator. However, an online calculator may not be able to tell you how much you could claim for any material damage.
In a successful claim for a data breach, your compensation may cover:
- Material damage – Compensation for any money or additional assets lost.
- Non-material damage – Compensation for psychiatric injuries or emotional distress suffered.
In the compensation table below, you can view compensation brackets for different psychological injuries you may potentially be compensated for when making a police data breach claim. The contents of this table are based on guidelines from the Judicial College. However, the brackets should be treated as a rough guide only. Individual circumstances of your claim can affect how much you receive.
If you have grounds to claim, you can contact our team of advisors, who may be able to offer you a compensation estimate that more closely reflects your case.
| Category Of Injury | Notes On The Injury | Possible Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Psychiatric Damage – Severe | There are different factors affecting how much may be awarded for psychiatric injuries. These are the effect on the victim’s ability to continue with education and work, how much it has affected their relationships, whether they have sought medical care and what their prognosis is. | £51,460 to £108,620 |
| Psychiatric Damage – Moderately Severe | Whilst the victim is affected in these same ways, they should have a better chance to make a recovery as long as they get professional help. | £17,900 to £51,460 |
| Psychiatric Damage – Moderate | This person should have made a much better recovery by the time any injury claim comes to trial. | £5,500 to £17,900 |
| Psychiatric Damage – Less Severey | This person will have made a good recovery and compensation will be based on how long and to what degree they had been affected. | £1,440 to £5,500 |
| PTSD – Less Severe | In around one to two years the person should have made a full recovery. | £3,710 to £7,680 |
| PTSD – Moderate | This victim should have mostly recovered and should not be left with any symptoms which are grossly disabling. | £7,680 to £21,730 |
| PTSD – Moderately Severe | This victim may be left with significant disabilities for the foreseeable future. However, they do have a better prognosis for future recovery. | £21,730 to £56,180 |
| PTSD – Severe | As with psychiatric injuries, all parts of this person’s life could have been affected by the injury. The injury may be permanent at some level. This person may not be able to work in the same way as they did before the trauma. | £56,180 to £94,470 |
Why Choose A No Win No Fee Data Breach Solicitor?
If you have evidence of a valid claim following a Dyfed-Powys police data breach, you may consider making a No Win No Fee claim. No Win No Fee means that you pay a success fee if your solicitor wins your claim, rather than paying a solicitor’s fee upfront. Both parties will sign a Conditional Fee Agreement to protect and formalise this.
What Are The Benefits Of No Win No Fee Claims?
- You won’t have to pay a solicitor’s fee before you claim. So, this may be the more affordable option for you to fund a solicitor’s services.
- Your solicitor would deduct the success fee from your compensation payout at a lawfully capped percentage. You’d know what this percentage is before you agree to use their services.
- You keep the majority of your compensation payout if you win.
- And most importantly, we won’t charge you a success fee if your solicitor does not win your claim.
Get Advice On Claiming For A Dyfed-Powys Police Data Breach
Do you have evidence that a Dyfed-Powys police data breach involved your personal data? If you have suffered mentally or financially because of a data breach, Legal Expert can help you. We could connect you with a skilled personal injury solicitor to handle your compensation claim. Your solicitor would have sound experience with data breach compensation claims.
To see if you can begin your claim, please get in touch with Legal Expert today to discuss your options.
- Call us on 0800 073 8804
- Use our claim online form.
- Alternatively, you can use the live chat on the bottom right-hand side of this page to chat with us directly right now.
If you would like to learn more about making a No Win No Fee claim for a data breach, please have a look at these online guides.
How To Report A Data Breach Incident – If you believe a data protection breach has taken place, this is how you report it.
Stalker Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – How to claim compensation if a stalker or a cyberstalker has breached your data.
Solicitors Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – If a solicitor has breached your data, please read our guide to see if you are owed compensation.
Other Guides That May Help
- Solicitors Lost My Medical Records – Can I Claim?
- Sickness At Work Data Breach Compensation Claims
- UK GDPR Breach Compensation Claims
- Child Custody Data Breach Claims
- Estate Agent Data Breach Claims
External Guides
A government guide to making a complaint if your data has been breached.
If you have evidence of a valid claim following a Dyfed-Powys police data breach, why not get in touch?
Written by Chelache
Edited by Victorine
