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Written Question
Social Media: Disclosure of Information
Thursday 6th January 2022

Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what recent assessment she has made of the CPS’s ability to request and receive data from social media platforms in (a) general and (b) cases involving a deceased child.

Answered by Alex Chalk

Requesting data from social media platforms for use in criminal investigations – which may of course lead to the CPS bringing charges – is an investigative matter for the police, who will have to decide if that’s an appropriate line of inquiry.

Where investigators are unable to obtain data held overseas themselves, CPS prosecutors may draft and issue requests for Mutual Legal Assistance from international counterparts. That capability is further enhanced by powers created by the Government in the Crime (Overseas Production Order) Act 2019.