Recommendation - Greater Manchester Police, March 2022
We identified organisational learning from an investigation alleging officers disclosed confidential information without a legitimate policing purpose.
IOPC reference
Recommendations
The IOPC recommends that Greater Manchester Police produce guidance on how officers should raise safeguarding concerns regarding a member of the public they know in a personal capacity.
This follows an IOPC appeal where officers shared information regarding a member of the public who they knew in a personal capacity. Concerns were raised by the member of the public that the sharing of this information was a breach of data protection legislation. There is no policy which provides guidance on what officers should do in such circumstances, and officers spoken to during the investigation stated that they were not aware of how to handle this matter formally and had not received training in this area.
Do you accept the recommendation?
Yes
Accepted action:
Public Protection Division:
The Child Safeguarding Policy is currently being reviewed and refreshed to reflect organisational changes since the policy was last updated.
As part of this policy review, it will include a section on Information Sharing and provide advice and guidance to officers on the legal framework available to them to share personal information for safeguarding purposes. It will also include a point, that they should seek advice from a supervisor or a Safeguarding Lead from their respective district, should they be uncertain of their legal powers to share information.
Information Services Branch:
In a broader approach to improving data security, data protection and privacy IS Branch have now commissioned a security awareness training programme for the year ahead with GMP training department and the communications team. Although there is no timescale for delivery at this time this is work in progress following recommendations from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and this learning recommendation received from the IOPC.