Gloucestershire Constabulary Data Breach – Can I Claim?
In this guide, we’ll look at how a Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach could occur. We’ll also look at the steps you could take if you wanted to claim for a data breach that caused you harm.
Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach claims guide
Gloucestershire Constabulary is the territorial police department in charge of policing the county of Gloucestershire. As a police department, they might need to collect personal data for a number of different reasons. For example, if you work for them, they’ll need to hold your details as your employer. They may also hold your personal data if you’ve reported a crime.
Under data protection laws, they have a responsibility to keep your data safe. If your data has been exposed, causing you harm, then you may be able to claim compensation for the harm the breach has caused you.
Legal Expert can help you claim compensation if affected by a police data breach. We can connect you with an experienced data breach lawyer to work on your compensation claim.
To begin your data breach compensation claim, or simply for more information, please call us today on 0800 073 8804 for your free legal consultation. Or you can begin your claim online at LegalExpert.co.uk.
Select A Section
- What Is A Gloucestershire Constabulary Data Breach?
- How Could The Police Breach The Data Protection Act?
- Gloucestershire Constabulary Data Protection Breach Statistics
- What Should You Do If You Are A Victim Of A Data Breach By A Police Constabulary?
- How Are Data Breach Compensation Amounts In The UK Calculated?
- Why Claim For A Data Breach With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
- Where To Get Advice About Claims For Gloucestershire Constabulary Data Breaches
What Is A Gloucestershire Constabulary Data Breach?
A data breach is when a security incident means that personal data has been lost, stolen, destroyed, altered or accessed by or disclosed to an unauthorised party. A data breach can happen accidentally or because someone attempts to breach personal data through malice.
There is legislation in the UK that protects the public’s data privacy rights. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was a piece of EU legislation that was introduced in 2018. It was ratified into UK law through the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). This legislation now sits alongside the UK GDPR, and this forms the regime that we refer to when referring to data protection laws in the UK.
For more information on how a Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach could occur, why not speak with an advisor today? They could connect you with a No Win No Fee solicitor to work on your claim.
How Could The Police Breach The Data Protection Act?
A Gloucestershire Constabulary were involved in a data breach, for which they were fined by the ICO.
They sent a mass email to individuals involved in an investigation of historic child abuse. However, the police force did not use the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature, so all email addresses were visible to the other recipients.
Many of these child abuse victims had lifelong anonymity. This data breach made the child abuse victims identifiable to the other email recipients, which included journalists, lawyers and witnesses.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigated the Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach and fined them for breaching personal data. Gloucestershire Police have responded that they will be appealing the decision.
Gloucestershire Constabulary Data Protection Breach Statistics
The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK’s independent authority designed to uphold personal data rights. Importantly, the ICO’s data security incident trends can help us understand how often data breaches can occur.
Here are some key statistics for Q2 2020/21:
- In the justice sector, there were 40 data breaches reported to the ICO.
- Of these, only 2 were cyber data breaches. The rest are related to physically stored data.
- The most commonly specified cause of a data breach in the justice sector was the loss or theft of paperwork that was left in an unsecured location.
- Both cyber data breaches were caused by ransomware.
What Should You Do If You Are A Victim Of A Data Breach By A Police Constabulary?
If the organisation has become aware of a breach themselves, they should let you know about it with undue delay.
In the event that you’re concerned with how an organisation has used your personal data, please contact the organisation directly so that they can attempt to resolve the issue. If you’re unhappy with their response, you can have this escalated.
You can report your concerns to the ICO if you’re not happy with the way your complaint has been handled. You should do this within 3 months of your last meaningful communication with the organisation. If you wait any longer than this, the ICO may decline to investigate.
However, it’s important to note that the ICO cannot award you compensation. This would need to come from the organisation responsible for breaching your data.
So please get in touch with Legal Expert to enquire about finding a data breach solicitor to handle your claim. You don’t need to have a solicitor work on your behalf in a Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach claim; however, you may find that the support of a lawyer helps the process run much more smoothly.
How Are Data Breach Claim Compensation Amounts In The UK Calculated?
A breach of your personal data can be an emotionally distressing ordeal. In some instances, the trauma of the data breach can cause a victim to develop psychiatric injuries such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression.
Furthermore, fraudsters may use your data to target you for phishing attacks or other forms of identity theft. Subsequently, you could also lose money and other assets of value if, for example, they accessed your bank details.
Your data breach compensation can include up to two types of compensation, which reflect the effect that a breach can have on you:
- Material damages – this is made up of compensation for any monetary losses that the data breach has caused you.
- Non-material damages – this compensation covers any emotional distress or psychiatric injuries caused by the data breach. This could include stress or depression.
You may be wondering how much you can claim for a police GDPR breach. Claims can vary from case to case.
However, we’ve included a data breach compensation table to estimate how much you could receive in non-material damages. We have based these compensation amounts on guidelines from the Judicial College. This is a publication that legal professionals use to help value personal injury claims. However, a ruling in the case of Gulati vs. MGN [2015] means that they can now be used to value data breach claims, too.
| Severity | Type Of Harm | Compensation Bracket |
|---|---|---|
| Severe | General Psychiatric Damage | £51,460 to £108,620 |
| Moderately Severe | General Psychiatric Damage | £17,900 to £51,460 |
| Moderate | General Psychiatric Damage | £5,500 to £17,900 |
| Less Severe | General Psychiatric Damage | Up to £5,500 |
| Severe | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | £56,180 to £94,470 |
| Moderately Severe | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | £21,730 to £56,180 |
| Moderate | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | £7,680 to £21,730 |
| Less Severe | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Up to £7,680 |
For more information on how much you could potentially receive in a Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach claim, speak to one of our advisors today. They could offer you free legal advice and a no-obligation assessment of your claim.
Why Claim For A Data Breach With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
Legal Expert could provide you with a No Win No Fee solicitor to handle a potential Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach claim. A No Win No Fee agreement means that you will not pay an upfront solicitors fee. Instead, if your solicitor wins your claim, they will charge you a success fee.
With a No Win No Fee agreement, you do not have to pay anything to your solicitor if they do not win your claim. Furthermore, the success fee is legally capped, meaning that you’ll always receive the majority of the compensation awarded to you.
If you’d like to know more about the benefits of No Win No Fee agreements, why not speak with one of our advisors today? If you have proof that a data breach occurred, causing you harm, you could also be represented by a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel.
Where To Get Advice For Gloucestershire Constabulary Data Breaches
Please get in touch with us to find out more about claiming for a Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach. We can offer you free legal advice about making a data breach claim. Moreover, we can provide you with a skilled data breach solicitor to handle your case.
You can:
- Call our compensation claims helpline on 0800 073 8804
- Contact us in writing, via our online form
- Or use our Live Support widget to chat with us now.
Other Guides You May Find Helpful
- Crown Prosecution Service Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – How to claim compensation for a Crown Prosecution Service data breach.
- University Of Gloucestershire Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – Claiming compensation if the University of Gloucestershire has breached your data.
- Post Office Money Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – A guide to making a data breach claim against Post Office Money.
- A General Guide To Data Breach Compensation
- Brentwood Borough Council
- East Suffolk Council
- Solicitors Lost My Medical Records – Can I Claim?
- Sickness At Work Data Breach Compensation Claims
- The Police Sent My Personal Data To Someone Else, Can I Claim?
- Foster Care Data Breach Claims
You may find this guide on personal data breaches from the Information Commissioner’s Office useful.
Visit the ICO website to make a complaint about how an organisation has used your data.
A guide for individuals and families from the National Cyber Security Centre on cyber security.
Thank you for reading our guide on when you could make a Gloucestershire Constabulary data breach claim.
