Phone SeizedUnited KingdomThe RIPA s.49 notice: when refusing your password is a crime
The RIPA s.49 notice: when refusing your password is a crime
What you must do, what you can refuse, and what they can do
Every claim below links to the law it comes from, with the wording quoted so you can check it yourself.
You must
Refusing is a criminal offence.
Comply with a section 49 notice once it has been validly given to you.
Knowingly failing to make the disclosure the notice requires is a criminal offence under s.53.
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, s.53(1)
“A person to whom a section 49 notice has been given is guilty of an offence if he knowingly fails, in accordance with the notice, to make the disclosure required by virtue of the giving of the notice.”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-09-08
Refusing to comply once a notice has been given is punishable by up to five years' imprisonment in a national security or child indecency case, and up to two years' imprisonment in any other case.
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, s.53(5A)
“the appropriate maximum term' means— in a national security case or a child indecency case , five years; and— in any other case, two years”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-09-08
You can refuse
No penalty for saying no.
An officer asking informally for your password is not the same as this regime being invoked — it only applies to protected information that came into police possession through the exercise of a statutory power to seize, detain, inspect, search or otherwise interfere with property or documents.
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, s.49(1)(a)
“This section applies where any protected information— has come into the possession of any person by means of the exercise of a statutory power to seize, detain, inspect, search or otherwise to interfere with documents or other property”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-09-08
Limits on them
A rule that constrains them, or a remedy you can use.
A notice can only be given where the person with the relevant permission believes imposing the disclosure requirement is necessary.
RIPA Part III Code of Practice, para 3.38
“The person giving appropriate permission and, where different, the person with that permission must believe that the imposition of a disclosure requirement by a notice is necessary.”
Read it at assets.publishing.service.gov.ukquote checked 2026-09-08
A notice can only be imposed where it is proportionate to what is sought, and where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain the information without giving one.
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, s.49(2)(c)-(d)
“that the imposition of such a requirement is proportionate to what is sought to be achieved by its imposition, and— that it is not reasonably practicable for the person with the appropriate permission to obtain possession of the protected information in an intelligible form without the giving of a notice under this section”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-09-08
This regime applies only where the protected information came into police possession through the exercise of a statutory power to seize, detain, inspect, search or otherwise interfere with property or documents.
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, s.49(1)(a)
“This section applies where any protected information— has come into the possession of any person by means of the exercise of a statutory power to seize, detain, inspect, search or otherwise to interfere with documents or other property”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-09-08
The notice that turns silence into an offence
A section 49 notice under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is a formal, written demand for the key, password or other means of accessing protected information — information the police already lawfully hold, most often because it came into their possession through a statutory power to seize, detain, inspect or search property. In the seizure context, that usually means data on a device they have already taken.
Once one has been validly given to you, it stops being optional. Knowingly failing to make the disclosure it requires is a criminal offence in its own right.
The notice has conditions attached
A notice cannot be issued casually. The person giving permission for it has to believe imposing the requirement is necessary, and it can only be given where it is proportionate to what is being sought, and where it is not reasonably practicable to get the information some other way.
What refusing actually costs
The penalty scales with what the case is about: up to five years’ imprisonment in a national security or child indecency case, and up to two years in any other case.
This is not the same as being asked at the desk
The offence only attaches to a person who has actually been given a section 49 notice — not to someone simply asked for a PIN by an officer during a search or an interview. That distinction matters, and it is covered in more depth, including how to tell the two apart, on rightsandlimits.com’s phone passwords page.
Last reviewed 2026-09-08. Next review due 2027-03-08. No lawyer has reviewed this page — see [email protected] if you think something here is wrong.