FOI 896-2025 / Sep 2025 / Biometric data
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 896-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 3rd September 2025 as follows:
1) Has this police force ever requested or collected biometric data—such as fingerprints, photographs, or videos—from an educational establishment or an educational supplier? This pertains to educational institutions from Nursery through Year 13 and excludes institutions for students beyond Year 13.
2) If the answer to question 1 is yes, please specify the types of biometric data obtained (e.g., fingerprints, photographs), the number of individuals involved, and whether this data was shared with any other entities such as Prevent.
3) If the answer to question 1 is yes, have any convictions been secured based on data obtained from a school biometric database?
4) If the answer to question 1 is yes, has any biometric data been added to the police database? If so, please provide the number of data subjects' biometric records added each year.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
Warwickshire Police are unable to confirm whether or not any information is held relevant to your request.
Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”
It is not possible to advise whether Warwickshire Police holds information relevant to your request without conducting a manual review of all investigations. Clearly this would take an inordinate amount of time and therefore, the cost of complying with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance s12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance and, where possible, suggest ways in which you may revise your request. However, due to the volume of records involved I am unable to suggest a way to do so on this occasion.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB