Introduce new safeguards when police return devices containing intimate images

Summary

Introduce legislation requiring police to follow a safeguarding process before returning a seized device containing intimate images or recordings of a complainant, including informing them and allowing them to request that the material is removed or put beyond the device owner’s use. Intimate images or recordings may be discovered on a seized device during a sexual offence investigation. If the investigation does not result in a conviction, there should still be safeguards before that device is returned. Police may need to preserve a forensic copy as evidence, but this should not automatically mean returning access to the original intimate material. Complainants should have clear rights to information, privacy and safeguarding regardless of the outcome of the investigation.

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Timeline

1. 22 September 2026

   Petition

   Introduce legislation requiring police to follow a safeguarding process before returning a seized device containing intimate images or recordings of a complainant, including informing them and allowing them to request that the material is removed or put beyond the device owner’s use. Intimate images or recordings may be discovered on a seized device during a sexual offence investigation. If the investigation does not result in a conviction, there should still be safeguards before that device is returned. Police may need to preserve a forensic copy as evidence, but this should not automatically mean returning access to the original intimate material. Complainants should have clear rights to information, privacy and safeguarding regardless of the outcome of the investigation.

   Source: Petition

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