The Criminal Justice and Data Protection (Protocol No. 36) Regulations 2014

Time limits

55.  Subject to regulation 59—

(a) in an urgent case regarding a serious offence—

(i) a UK competent authority must respond within eight hours of a request when the information or intelligence requested in accordance with the Framework Decision is held in a database directly accessible by the UK competent authority; but

(ii) where the provision of the information or intelligence requested in accordance with the Framework Decision within the period of eight hours would put a disproportionate burden on the UK competent authority, the UK competent authority—

(aa) may postpone the provision of the information or intelligence for up to three days;

(bb) must immediately inform the requesting competent authority of this postponement; and

(cc) must provide reasons on the form set out in Annex A;

(b) in a non-urgent case regarding a serious offence—

(i) a UK competent authority must ensure that a request for information or intelligence in accordance with the Framework Decision is responded to within one week if the requested information or intelligence is held in a database directly accessible by the UK competent authority; but

(ii) if the UK competent authority is unable to respond within seven days, it must provide reasons for that on the form set out in Annex A; and

(c) in all other cases—

(i) a UK competent authority must ensure that the information requested in accordance with the Framework Decision is communicated to the requesting competent authority within 14 days; but

(ii) if the UK competent authority is unable to respond within 14 days, it must provide reasons on the form set out in Annex A.