Data Protection Responsibilities

Please provide the following information regarding your responsibilities under the Data Protection Act (DPA):

1. How many requests do you get under the DPA each year?
2. How do you verify the authenticity of DPA requests?
3. Do you conduct regular DPA audits / have an auditing policy?
4. Do you maintain data on errors in information covered by the DPA?  If so, please provide data for the past 5 years.

In accordance with section 1(1) (a) of the Act our response is provided below;

I can confirm that the Cheshire Constabulary does hold the information you have requested. In order to provide the information it will require a manual search of audit records from 2005 to the current date to extract error data to answer part 4 a of your request. This it is estimated will exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations.

The above refers only to part 4 a of your request. if you would care to refine your request to exclude that part we estimate that the remaining parts can be completed within the appropriate limit.