Interview under caution: claimant wants recording

I hope this is the right place to post this question.  I have a client who was interviewed under caution for benefit fraud.  The case was dropped.  They want access to the recording.  Can they obtain this and if so how? 

You’d just do a subject access request in the normal way. If DWP think its exempt from disclosure, let them explain why.

Never had an issue with obtaining transcripts or recordings of IUCs. Often doesn’t need a SAR. Just a quick conversation can sort it.

Once brilliantly had someone from DWP literally walk across a transcript for me. Utterly bizarre but apparently it was because it was an IUC they were really proud of.

Tribunal was a 10 minute win as it was easy to demonstrate that the single most obvious question hadn’t been asked in the IUC and must therefore have been asked, as the appellants parent recalled, outside the room.

Oh dear 😊

Hi, if a claimant wants to know why they’ve been asked to attend an IUC, and have been told by UC that they will not be provided with reasons prior to the interview, can a SAR be made for this?

No reason why not.

But if the DWP does have reasonable grounds for an investigation, the claimant will be on a hiding to nothing if they think they will be able to get the DWP to show its hand prior to the interview. It’s an interview under caution - i.e. because someone is suspected of committing a criminal offence. So it works just like in the cop shows on the telly when someone is lifted and has their rights read to them in the interview at the police station - they don’t get sent, in advance and so they can prepare for, a list of questions they are going to be asked and actions they are going to be asked to explain. This is just the same - though because they are not under arrest, a person can refuse to attend an interview under caution (I have, however, had a number of cases where DWP has gone down the route of getting the police to arrest someone and has then interviewed them under caution - that is an option open to DWP).

The information is going to be exempt from disclosure under GDPR given that it relates to an ongoing criminal investigation.

There is a right under PACE Code C for the interviewee to be given sufficient information to understand the nature of the offence they are suspected of and the basis of that suspicion prior to the IUC - although that is generally meant as immediately prior to the IUC i.e. right before the caution is administered.

There isn’t really firm provision as to exactly when this ought to be provided to the suspect before the IUC but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask the investigator what the interview is generally about so as to inform decisions around e.g. whether to attend and whether to seek legal assistance.

There can be jockeying around how much information ought to be provided to the suspect in relation to an IUC as e.g. a defendant may be able to argue that they were justified in giving a ‘no comment’ interview due to insufficient disclosure. But your client should take advice from someone specialising in criminal law.