In this guide, we will look at when a potential police employee data breach claim might be justified. There are a number of different organisations that need to collect your personal data for a number of reasons, including your employer. There are laws that are in place to protect your personal data from being exposed.
Police employee data breach claims guide
The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 outline how organisations that process personal data need to protect it. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the regulatory body for information privacy in the UK.
If you’re a police officer, your personal data will be held by your employer. If they were to fail in their responsibility to keep this information safe, and a police data breach occurred, you might wonder what steps you can take. This guide will give you information on making a data breach compensation claim.
If you think you may have a potential police employee data breach claim, then get in touch by:
- Calling us on 0800 073 8804
- Using the live chat feature on this page
- Filling out our online contact form
Select A Section
- What Is A Police Employee Data Breach?
- Types Of Employee Data Police Forces May Hold
- What Could Cause A Police Employee Data Breach?
- Police Employee Data Breach Compensation Calculator
- How To Make A Data Breach Claim Against Your Employer
What Is A Police Employee Data Breach?
A data breach is defined as an incident involving the loss of, destruction of, access to or disclosure of personal data in an unauthorised manner. Data breaches can be the result of deliberate malice where someone aims to obtain your data for their own purposes. However, a breach can also happen as the result of human error.
Examples of non-deliberate data breaches include sending e-mails containing personal data to the incorrect recipient and either misplacing or failing to properly dispose of hard copy documents containing personal data.
Examples of deliberate data breaches can include incidents such as phishing, firewall attacks and ransomware. Organisations should ensure that their online security systems are sufficiently up-to-date to prevent these kinds of incidents from occurring.
In the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020, almost half of businesses participating in the study (46%) reported cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. Of these, two in five organisations (39%) suffered an adverse impact from said breach.
As well as police officers, people in other job roles could be affected by a potential police employee data breach. This could include administrative staff, community support officers and radio operators.
Types Of Employee Data Police Forces May Hold
The ICO defines personal data as information that can be used to identify someone, either on its own or when put together with other information. There is a wide range of personal data that an employer might need to collect for a number of different reasons.
Some of the personal data that your employer might need to hold on you could include:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Employee number
- Address
- Email address
- Phone number
- Police badge number
Unauthorised disclosure of any of the aforementioned employee information by the police service may give rise to an employer data breach claim.
What Could Cause A Police Employee Data Breach?
The ICO has specified the key principles that an organisation should centre their attitude to data protection around. Furthermore, an organisation should not process your personal data without a lawful basis for doing so.
Personal data breaches can occur as a result of human error. We’ve included some examples of how this could happen below:
- Sending information to the wrong recipient. For example, HR in your workplace might send you an email relating to your salary, but misspell your name in the email address. This could mean that your information is sent to someone who is not authorised to see it.
- Lost or stolen devices. Your personal data might be stored on a laptop or phone that is then lost. This could mean that an unauthorised party is able to access it.
- Failure to use BCC in an email. The BCC function on an email means that a message can be sent to a number of people without them being able to see who else is a recipient. If this feature is not used when it should be, this could mean that your email address is exposed.
If you’re wondering “when could I make a police employee data breach claim?”, our team could help. Get in touch with an advisor today for free legal advice.
Police Employee Data Breach Compensation Calculator
In order to make a successful police employee data breach claim, you must be able to prove that the breach was caused by the wrongful conduct of the organisation processing your data, and that it caused you harm. Compensation for a data breach claim is calculated by considering two types of damage: material and non-material. We explain these in more detail below:
- Material damage includes any financial losses that you may have suffered as a result of the data breach. For example, if hackers accessed your bank details, this may have resulted in the theft of your money.
- Non-material damage aims to compensate you for any psychological harm you may have experienced as a result of the data breach, e.g. you may have suffered stress and worry arising from the breach of personal data
The Court of Appeal decision of Vidal-Hall and others v Google [2015] held that regardless of whether you have suffered financial loss arising from a data breach, you are still able to pursue a claim for non-material damages. Before this landmark decision, claimants must have suffered financial loss in order to recover compensation for psychological harm.
The Judicial College produces detailed compensation guidelines which outline guideline brackets of compensation for each type of personal injury. Legal professionals can use these guidelines to calculate settlements. We have included a table below made up of these figures to give you an idea of how much you could receive.
| Injury | Notes | Bracket |
|---|---|---|
| Mental harm | Severe- This level of injury will involve marked problems regarding all aspects of life and a poor prognosis. | £54,830 to £115,730 |
| Mental harm | Moderately Severe- This level of injury will involve significant problems regarding all aspects of life, but a better prognosis than in more serious cases. | £19,070 to £54,830 |
| Mental harm | Moderate- This level of injury will include the sorts of problems relating to all areas of life but improvement will have been made and there will be a good prognosis. | £5,860 to £19,070 |
| Mental harm | The amount that you receive will depend on how badly daily activities and sleep were impacted. | £1,540 to £5,860 |
| Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | Permanent effects that badly affect all areas of life and stop them from functioning the way they did before the trauma. | £59,860 to £100,670 |
| Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | The effects of the trauma are likely to cause significant | £23,150 to £59,860 |
| Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | The injured person will have largely recovered and any ongoing effects won’t be grossly disabling. | £8,180 to £23,150 |
| Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | A virtually full recovery will have been made within a year or two and any ongoing effects will be minor. | £3,950 to £8,180 |
Please bear in mind that these are only guidelines. For an assessment of how much you could receive based on your circumstances, speak with an advisor today.
How To Make A Data Breach Claim Against Your Employer
You may be wondering “how could a No Win No Fee agreement benefit when making a police employee data breach claim?”. If you chose to work with a solicitor, they could offer to handle your case on a No Win No Fee basis.
This means there is nothing for you to pay your lawyer in order for them to start work on your claim, and you don’t pay anything as your case progresses. f you do not win your case, then you do not pay your lawyer for their services. If your claim is successful then your personal injury solicitor will deduct what is known as a success fee from your damages. This is a legally-capped percentage of your final compensation.
If you’d like to know what steps to take if a police employee data breach were to occur, our advisors could help. Simply get in touch today by:
- Calling 0800 073 8804
- Using our online contact form
- Speaking with us using the live chat feature on this page
Data Breaches Affecting Police Forces
Anxiety– Advice from the NHS on dealing with anxiety.
Action Taken By The ICO- Information on enforcement action that the ICO have taken
Report A Phishing Scam– Report a suspicious text, email or phone call to the government.
Finding Data Breach Solicitors Near Me – Legal Expert – Get Free Advice – our guidance on data breach claims
No Win No Fee Compensation Claims Guide Help And Free Advice – Legal Expert – Get Free Advice – our guidance on No Win No Fee-funded claims
Claiming For A Hotel Data Breach– our guide on claiming if a hotel exposed your personal data, causing you harm.
You may have more questions such as “am I entitled to make a police employee data breach claim?”; if so, then get in touch with our team of advisors today.
Written by Burrows
Edited by Stocks
