Exclusive: Police seeking access to medical notes of thousands of rape victims

The findings come amid plans for legislation to stop “unnecessary and invasive” police requests to access the therapy notes of rape victims. Proponents of the legislation fear the practice is deterring these people from seeking support.

Freedom of information request responses from 36 mental health trusts showed police forces had made at least 21,913 requests to access information about a service user’s treatment between 2018-19 and 2022-23. There were 4,733 requests in 2022-23 alone.

Not all trusts provided data for all five financial years. However, based on the data from the 21 which did, it is possible to ascertain that although police requests peaked in 2021-22, the level of requests remain above those seen pre-covid.

HSJ also asked trusts how many of the requests trusts had been declined and how many related to an alleged sexual offence. Many trusts either did not hold this data or did not hold it in an easily obtainable format.

However, the four trusts that did provide substantive details said the number of requests relating to an alleged sexual offence accounted for between 19.7 per cent and 52.1 per cent of the total.

Some trusts also provided details on when they might decline a request. One said it did not refuse any requests, because police were only able to make them when there was “a clear legal authority”.

One trust said it would release information without patient consent “only in exceptional circumstances”. Another claimed it only provided the “minimum necessary information”, while another stated it would work with police to “reconsider the scope of their request” when it deemed it to be excessive.

A British Psychological Society spokesperson said police requests for access were “a complex area where difficult decisions often have to be made”.

While the spokesperson acknowledged that sometimes requests could help prevent potential crimes or were made with the patients’ consent, they added: “The worry and threat that therapy notes will not be kept confidential and could be accessed by the police, and potentially used in court, could prevent people from accessing therapy altogether. When people do engage with the therapy process, it can be seriously compromised if they are not able to have confidence in the system and be open about their thoughts and feelings.”

Royal College of Psychiatrists president Lade Smith said: “There is sometimes a tension between the police’s desire for information and the medical duty of confidentiality. The fact that a request comes from the police should not in itself have any bearing on a decision of whether or not to disclose…

“Police statutory powers to require disclosure are very limited. However, over the years, a greater emphasis on public protection and safeguarding procedures has potentially created a system in which there is an assumption that confidentiality should be breached rather than maintained. Bearing in mind the often sensitive nature of mental health information, clinicians are still expected to make every effort to establish and respect a patient’s wishes and defend their rights.”