Daily Highlights

The incident affected systems operated by the Police National Legal Database (PNLD), which hosts the Ask the Police website. As a result, some names and email addresses of people who had previously submitted a question through Ask the Police were accessed and later published online.

If your information was affected, you will have already received an email from Ask the Police explaining what happened, what information was involved, and the steps you can take to protect yourself. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has been notified.

It is important to note that PNLD is not a police crime-recording system. PNLD provides legal information, products and services to UK police forces and criminal justice organisations. It does not hold confidential information about victims, witnesses or offenders, and no such information was involved in this incident.

If you have not received an email from Ask the Police about the incident, your information is not believed to have been affected.
 

When travelling on public transport, the companies themselves issue a lot of advice particularly in the stations or on the buses and trains themselves. However, it is worth bearing in mind the following general advice when travelling:

• Always sit downstairs on a bus, as near to the driver as possible.
• On a train try not to sit in an empty compartment.
• Make sure you keep hold of all personal belongings.
• If something or someone is bothering you, inform the guard or driver, they can stay with you if you feel uncomfortable 
• Try and have your fare ready so you don't have to get out your purse/wallet.

In relation to general personal safety try and remember the following suggestions:

• Try not to walk alone late at night and where possible choose well-lit main roads and walk confidently.
• If someone does grab your bag fighting back is not always a good idea, you do not know if your attacker has a weapon.
• Always be aware of your surroundings and the people around you. Reading or listening to music can be distracting.
• In a busy public place, try to use your mobile phone only in an emergency as it is advertising the fact that you have a phone. Whilst using your mobile phone you may be distracted, making it easier to take it from you.
• If you are attacked it is often better to shout 'fire' rather than 'help', it tends to attract more attention.

Abandoning horses on public/private land without the permission of the landowner is known as 'fly grazing.' If this happens, the police must be notified of this within 24 hours and the owners have up to 4 days to reclaim their horses. (previously it was 14 days).

Before taking action to remove the horses, you should enquire whether your neighbours or anyone locally know who the animals belong to. If, after the 4 days nobody reclaims the animals, the landowners have a much wider range of options as to what to do with them. Though they can still choose to sell them at auction, they can also choose to re-home seized horses privately or to charities, sell them privately or as a last resort they can have the animals humanely euthanised. Any excess money will remain recoverable with the owner.

You will be responsible for the control and welfare of the animals during the time that they are detained on your land and will need to make sure that they are fed and have access to water. If there is no water supply in the area where the horses are, or you have any other concerns regarding the welfare of the animals, you should raise your concerns with the RSPCA.

For more information, please see the link in Related Information.