The Queen on the application of II (by his mother and Litigation Friend, NK) – Court Ruling (United Kingdom, 2020)

The Claimant in the case is a 16-year-old boy. In December 2015, when he was 11 years old, an online tutor raised certain concerns about his alleged behaviour with the Department for Education. More specifically, on 22 February 2016, the Department for Education's Due Diligence and Counter Extremism Group raised a concern with Counter Terrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police regarding a "radicalisation risk to a pupil" at a school in East London ("the Claimant's former school"). This was a referral pursuant to the Government's "Prevent Strategy", the aim of which is to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. In the briefing note, the boy's tutor raised concerns because of the boy's statements about America being evil, obsession with killing the PM, and liking Game of Thrones because of the beheadings. The risk was assessed as being low, and "no concerns or potential concerns were identified". The authorities further noted that "the concerns expressed by the source appear to be a misunderstanding". Despite deletion requests from the Claimant and his mother, the boy's personal data was still retained on ten databases of the authorities. Was the personal data retention by the Metropolitan Police lawful under the ECHR and the 2018 UK Data Protection Act? The UK High Court held that the continued retention of the Claimant's personal data is in breach of Article 8 of the ECHR, as well as Sections 35 and 39 of the Data Protection Act.