The rules OpenPolice follows when it publishes information about courts, hearings and the people involved in them. Our Principles say what we value. This code says what we will and will not do.
Version 1.0·Adopted 6 October 2026·Reviewed at least annually
Who this applies to
This code binds everyone who operates, edits or writes code for OpenPolice. It applies to all content on the site, and in particular to court daily listings, case files, and the directories of courts, prisons, police forces and solicitors. Where this code and a licence or legal duty conflict, the stricter rule applies.
1. Accuracy and faithful reproduction
Show what was published, say where it came from
1.1We reproduce official information as published, in the order and grouping the source supplies. We do not reorder, rank or highlight entries.
1.2Every court list shows the source, the time the source published it and the time we last updated it, and links to the official page so anyone can check.
1.3We do not remove entries from a list except under rule 3.6 (takedown). Where an entry has been withheld, the page says so.
1.4Case files and other editorial content cite their sources. We do not publish claims about a person that we cannot source to a public record.
1.5When we are wrong we correct the record promptly and visibly.
2. Neutrality
No commentary, no ranking, no inference
2.1We attach no commentary, rating, review, user comment or opinion to any listing, courtroom, judge, defendant, witness or prosecutor.
2.2We do not produce predictive, advisory or automated analysis of any case, person or judge. A listing is not an outcome and we never present it as one.
2.3We do not build profiles of individuals, and we do not organise, search, index or count information by a person's name or by any judge.
2.4Statistics are published only at court level (hearings per court, hearing types, sitting days) and never by name, offence, prosecuting authority or any proxy for a protected characteristic.
2.5We reproduce judges' names and titles exactly as the court publishes them, and nothing more.
3. Protection of people named in proceedings
Contemporaneous, minimal, removable
3.1Defendant names on public pages are shortened to initial and surname. Names supplied as masked or anonymised by the court are never un-masked.
3.2We do not store or display charges, addresses, dates of birth, nationality or any protected characteristic from a court list.
3.3The HMCTS reporting-restrictions notice is reproduced verbatim on every list, and any entry whose notes refer to a restriction is flagged. We will not publish information protected by a reporting restriction.
3.4Court lists are kept only for the publication window the source sets. A list with no such window is deleted 7 days after its sitting date, and nothing is kept longer than 90 days. When that passes, the personal data is deleted automatically.
3.5Hearing rows are never part of the page content that search engines can index: they are loaded by the visitor's browser from a source that search engines are told not to index, in line with HMCTS's decision not to index court lists. We keep no searchable archive of personal data from court lists, and listing pages older than seven days are excluded from indexing altogether.
3.6Any person named on the site can ask us to review, correct or remove an entry via the contact page. We respond within one working day and can hide an entry immediately while we look into it.
3.7Email alerts are available by court or by case reference only, never by a person's name. They require a confirmed email address and every email carries a one-click unsubscribe that deletes the record.
4. Respect for the courts
Open justice without interference
4.1We comply with any direction from a court, a judge or HM Courts & Tribunals Service to amend or withdraw information, without delay.
4.2We attribute HMCTS on every list page and state that HMCTS does not endorse this service. We never use HMCTS, GOV.UK, judiciary or Crown branding or imply official status.
4.3We collect official data politely: licensed feeds are received by push, and any page we read ourselves is read no more than once every fifteen minutes in sitting hours, from an identified address, and we stop on request.
4.4We tell users to confirm their courtroom and time at the court, and we explain what the list means so that fewer people need to ask court staff.
5. Independence and money
No ads on lists, no pay-per-lead
5.1Court listing pages carry no advertising.
5.2Solicitors shown near a court are chosen by practice area and location, never by payment. Any paid placement anywhere on the site is labelled as such.
5.3Directory listings are offered on a flat-fee basis only. We never charge per lead, per enquiry or per case, in line with SRA rules.
5.4We never sell, share or trade personal data, including alert subscriptions, with anyone.
5.5We refuse feature requests, from users or commercial partners, that would breach this code.
6. Governance and review
Written down, tested, answerable
6.1The commitments in this code are recorded alongside the code that implements them. A change to one requires a deliberate change to the other.
6.2Our processing tools (the list parser, the name-shortening routine and the court-level counter) are deterministic, contain no machine learning, and are covered by automated tests that run on every change.
6.3The operator reviews live lists against the official source, the stored fields, and all complaints at least quarterly, and records the review in writing.
6.4A Data Protection Impact Assessment has been completed for court listings and is kept under review.
6.5We will provide a written account of our processing to HM Courts & Tribunals Service on request and will report any breach of this code or of a licence condition.
6.6This code is reviewed at least once a year and whenever HMCTS changes its publishing policy or licence conditions. Changes are dated on this page.
Sources and attribution
Court listings on this site contain public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (HMCTS Xhibit) and, where stated, information from HM Courts & Tribunals Service published through the Court and Tribunal Hearings service and re-used under the HMCTS Third-Party Courts and Tribunals Data Licence. HMCTS does not endorse this service or any analysis, findings or conclusions expressed on it. Lists change at short notice. Always confirm your courtroom and time with the court.
