The MPF are continuing to work with Federation lawyers to investigate the claims in respect of a ransomware attack on an external supplier to the MPS.
The Federation lawyers are already carrying out investigations into the circumstances of the breach, including making requests for further information from both the MPS and the external supplier. This is an important and necessary step as the specific facts of the breach are crucial to the lawyers’ assessment of the prospects of the potential claims. It will, however, likely take a significant amount of time to obtain the relevant information, as the investigations by the MPS and the external supplier are ongoing, before the lawyers are able to advise whether the potential claims have good prospects of success.
In the meantime, the MPF is liaising with PFEW and Federation lawyers to establish the most appropriate way to capture the details of affected members in order that these can be passed to the Federation lawyers as potential claimants to be included in the claim if the legal advice is positive. We shall update you about how to register yourself as a potential claimant in due course.
We appreciate that members may feel they need to act quickly, but rest assured that the time limit within which a data breach claim can be brought is 6 years from the date of the breach. Please also bear in mind that large group cases such as these (if there is found to be a viable claim) can take a number of years to be brought to a conclusion.
We take this opportunity to re-iterate our previous warning that lawyers outside of the Federation panel are likely to charge additional fees and/or deduct fees from any damages. Further, if members decide to sign up with external lawyers, they will not be able to join any Federation funded group action or if they wish do so they will likely have to pay the previous lawyers’ fees. Members are asked to carefully consider these risks before agreeing to instruct lawyers outside of the Federation panel. If you have already signed up with another firm, please note that you will be entitled to a 14 day “cooling off” period within which you may cancel your contract and pay nothing.
Finally, in response to enquiries received, please note that the Federation panel firm dealing with this matter is not the firm who advised in relation to the pensions claims, and they have considerable experience in dealing with group data protection claims.
Matt Cane
Professional Standards Secretary
Metropolitan Police Federation
