Crown Prosecution Service Data Breach – How To Claim

This guide will explain what steps you could take following a Crown Prosecution Service data breach. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is an independent agency that carries out criminal prosecutions in England and Wales following an investigation by the police or other law enforcement agencies.

Crown Prosecution Service data breach

A guide about what you could do after a Crown Prosecution Service data breach

The Crown Prosecution Service often handles special category data, which is sensitive data such as information about ethnicity and race. Moreover, the CPS handles data about people involved in the criminal justice system. Both special category and criminal offence data are particularly sensitive, so they require additional protection. If sensitive data or criminal justice data is breached, the data breach can be particularly traumatic for the victim.

We can help you if you have evidence of a valid claim for a data breach by the Crown Prosecution Service so please get in contact with us today. Our advisors can offer you free legal advice about making a data protection breach claim.

To see if you can make a CPS data breach claim, please call us on 020 3870 4868. Alternatively, you can use our claim online form.

Select A Section

  1. What Is A Crown Prosecution Service Data Breach?
  2. How The CPS Could Breach The UK GDPR
  3. Examples Of CPS Data Breaches
  4. Explaining The Claims Process
  5. Crown Prosecution Service Data Breach Claim Amounts
  6. Contact A GDPR Breach Solicitor

What Is A Crown Prosecution Service Data Breach?

Personal data is information that identifies a person. The Crown Prosecution Service may collect personal data belonging to employees, criminals they prosecute and stakeholders.

A data breach occurs when a security incident leads to the unlawful or accidental loss, destruction, disclosure, alteration of or access to personal information. The data breach could be an unintentional error. However, some data breaches are intentional, such as criminals carrying out a cyberattack to steal personal data.

When Can You Claim For A CPS Data Breach?

To make a personal data breach claim, you’d need to establish the following:

  • The organisation that was collecting, handling or processing it failed to protect it through wrongful conduct. (This could include, for example, not properly training their staff in data protection but asking them to handle personal data anyway.)
  • A data breach therefore occurred and it included your personal data.
  • Furthermore, the claimant experienced a psychiatric injury or financial loss because of the breach.

If you have evidence that could justify a valid claim following a Crown Prosecution Service data breach, why not reach out?

CPS Data Breach Statistics

These data security incident trends show how frequently organisations reported data breaches in the criminal justice sector to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is an independent body that enforces data protection law.

The trends are for Q3 2021/22.

  • Organisations reported 2,404 data security breaches.
  • Of these, organisations reported 631 cyber security incidents
  • Furthermore, organisations reported 1,773 non-cyber security incidents

How The CPS Could Breach The UK GDPR

As we have mentioned, human error could lead to a data breach. However, some data breaches are also caused by malicious attacks or individuals with ill intentions. Below are some examples of how a personal data breach could happen:

  • A fraudster could carry out a phishing attack. Subsequently, an employee could disclose confidential information.
  • An organisation could send personal data to the wrong postal address or email address. Therefore, unauthorised persons could be able to access the data.
  • Unauthorised disclosure can happen if an organisation accidentally discloses confidential data without a lawful reason.
  • Poor administrative processes can cause data breaches. For example, an employee may save a confidential file containing personal data in a shared folder, so it is seen by people who do not have the authorisation to do so.

If an organisation has compromised your data protection rights, causing a data breach you may be eligible to claim compensation for the mental or financial damage you suffered. If you have evidence of a Crown Prosecution Service data breach that harmed you, why not get in touch?

Examples Of CPS Data Breaches

Sadly, there was an incident where the CPS lost sensitive data about sexual assault and abuse. The Crown Prosecution Service lost DVDs that showed victims of child sexual abuse in police interviews. The Information Commissioner’s Office investigated the data breach and fined the CPS £325,000.

Unfortunately, in 2020, the CPS reported that over 1,600 Crown Prosecution Service data breaches happened within 12 months. 59 of the data breaches were considered serious and were reported to the ICO for investigation.

Source: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cps-under-fire-data-breach-cases/

Explaining The Claims Process

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), states that organisations are responsible for protecting the personal data they collect, process and store. What’s more, the Data Protection Act 2018 sits alongside the UK GDPR as data protection legislation. Under these data protection laws, you may be eligible to claim compensation for a data breach that causes you to suffer mental harm or financial loss.

If you wish to make a criminal justice data breach claim, contact UK Law. We can offer you free legal advice about claiming compensation. We can appoint our panel of solicitors to work on your case if you are eligible to claim.

Crown Prosecution Service Data Breach Compensation Amounts

If your data breach claim is successful, you could be paid up to two heads of claim.

  • Sometimes fraudsters use stolen personal data to carry out identity theft or fraud. So, if you have lost money or assets because of a data breach, you may be able to claim back these costs as material damages.
  • Moreover, many data breach victims suffer emotional distress because of a data breach. In extreme situations, when the data breach is particularly traumatic, the victim may develop mental health problems such as PTSD in response. Therefore you can claim non-material damages for these injuries.

Please feel free to use the table below to estimate how much compensation you could claim in non-material damages. (Material damages are not included). Guidelines from the Judicial College were used to create the compensation amounts in the table. However, the table’s contents are advisory, so please be aware that your final settlement may be more or less.

Edit
Injuries Severity Damages About
Mental Health Injury Severe Marked problems with regards to the injured person’s relationships, ability to work or carry on in education and their ability to cope with life. £54,830 to £115,730
Mental Health Injury Moderately Severe Affected by the same factors as those in the most serious category. The prognosis is more optimistic. £19,070 to £54,830
Mental Health Injury Moderate Similar issues to the two categories below but a marked improvement by the time a claim comes to trial (if it does). £5,860 to £19,070
Mental Health Injury Less Severe The claim will account for how long symptoms persisted for and how serious these symptoms were. £1,540 to £5,860
PTSD Severe The injury causes permanent effects preventing the injured party from being able to work and function at pre-trauma levels. £59,860 to £100,670
PTSD Moderately Severe A better prognosis makes this category distinct from the one below. The better prognosis is for a degree of recovery following professional help. £23,150 to £59,860
PTSD Moderate Largely, a recovery has taken place for this person. £8,180 to £23,150
PTSD Less Severe Almost a full recovery has taken place within one – two years of the trauma. £3,950 to £8,180

Please feel free to call our data breach claims helpline, and an advisor can help you determine how much you could claim.

Contact A GDPR Breach Solicitor

If you’re able to make a data breach claim, it could be handled as a No Win No Fee case.

Our panel of solicitors offer their services on a No Win No Fee basis for every claim they take on. Under such an agreement, you won’t be required to pay a solicitor’s fee in advance. Instead, you will only pay a success fee if your claim wins. The success fee is deducted from your final payout if your claim is successful. So you don’t have to worry about finding the money to pay for your solicitor’s services upfront.

Why not contact us to see if you can make a claim?

  • 020 3870 4868 to speak with us.
  • Alternatively, see if you can get help through our claim online form.
  • Or you can chat with an advisor right now using the support widget.

CPS And Criminal Justice Data Breaches

The below sources could be helpful for you:

Lost Medical Records Compensation Claims In The UK

Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide

Taking Your Case To Court And Claiming Compensation

Information on data protection and the CPS

Data Protection Rights For Data Subjects

Thank you for reading our guide on the steps you could take following a Crown Prosecution Service data breach.

Writer AL

Checked by HT