The Information Commissioner will be asking Lancashire Police about the decision to disclose missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and HRT, he said in a statement.
Information Commissioner John Edwards said: “Data protection law exists to ensure people’s personal information is used properly and fairly. This includes ensuring personal details are not disclosed inappropriately.
“Police can disclose information to protect the public and investigate crime, but they would need to be able to demonstrate such disclosure was necessary.
“We recognise that at this stage of an intensive, live investigation, the force must focus all their energies on the inquiry. But given the high-profile nature of this case, we will be asking Lancashire Police to set out how they reached the decision to disclose this information in due course.”
The Metropolitan Police commissioner has said it would be a “rare thing” for the force to comment about the vulnerabilities of a woman in a high-profile missing person case.
Sir Mark Rowley declined to tell Nick Ferrari on LBC whether he would have told the public of missing Lancashire mother-of-two Nicola Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and HRT because he did not have “all the facts to hand”.
When asked by Mr Ferrari whether the Met would have released such details about a missing Londoner, Sir Mark said: “It would be a rare thing to do. There may be a case where it is necessary to do, that is why I don’t want to be absolute, but it would be a rare thing to do.
“We need to release the information that helps find somebody and Lancashire have made that call and time will tell whether they have got it right or wrong.”
He added that the Met would be ready to help the Bulley investigation, if asked.
Former victims’ commissioner Dame Vera Baird said the way personal information was released about Nicola Bulley was “sexist” and a “dreadful error”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “A future family like this is going to face the torment of not knowing whether to run the risk of gratuitously wrecking your relative’s reputation by giving every detail away … or missing the chance of catching whoever has got them, or getting her back.
“So, I’m afraid this is the biggest error that I have seen for quite a long time. It’s going to just, you know, very sadly, to undermine trust in the police yet further.”
Asked if it was an error that would have been made if the potential victim was a man, she said: “I do not think that it would.
“Would we have had police officers saying, you know, if it was Nicholas, he’s been unfortunately tied down with alcohol because he’s been suffering from erectile dysfunction for the last few weeks? I think not. You can hear all the senior police officers squirming as I say it, I would have thought.
“No, it is a dreadful error to put this in the public domain for absolutely nothing and I’m afraid I think it’s as sexist as it comes.”
Dame Vera said she is worried about people making complaints in future after the police disclosed personal information about Nicola Bulley.
Asked about the police disclosing personal information about Nicola Bulley, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think they can think it’s relevant, can they? Because they have been subject to heavy and, in my view, totally justified criticism since they disclosed it.
“I’m sure they would have explained themselves if they had an explanation … if it was relevant it needed to be in a public domain at the start and it wasn’t. I mean, that is a really worrying error. It is frankly dreadful.”
She added: “Coming back to this information – you know, I’m worried about future people making complaints.”
She went on: “If one of your relatives has gone missing … and may have some weaknesses, as goodness knows we all do, then would you, first of all, go to the police at all as early as you should when you will have to tell them all the intimate details to help them with their inquiry – that’s essential.
“But would you if it’s going to be on the front page of The Sun the next day or a week later? And if you do, will you tell them these details?”
