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Trace Enquiries
Before you consider instructing us to carry out a trace enquiry you must first decide whether the request is lawful. In order to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 we must first be satisfied that the request has a lawful basis. We will help you by providing you with a form to complete when instructing us.
We carry out enquiries with careful attention. We don’t just enter names into databases and press ‘Go’! This is a detailed research task.
We are confined to using consented data and whatever is in the public domain. Everything we do is lawful.
There are a possible three outcomes to any trace enquiry. We do not offer a no trace/ no fee service.
Positive
Most trace reports prove to be positive and we achieve this by researching professional subscription databases, public records and carrying out open source research. Before we define a result as positive, we will require either recent information or corroborative information that indicates the trace is correct. We rely on the accuracy of the information available to us.
Doubtful
We may categorise the result as ‘doubtful’. Examples of this may be when we cannot separate namesakes or there is conflicting information such as the person is shown at more than one address at the same time. When we define a case as doubtful, we consider that the information gleaned can be developed with further work and will advise accordingly.
Negative
We will report a negative result once we have exhausted all lines of enquiry open to us. There can be many reasons for a negative result. The most common is that the information supplied to commence the enquiry was wrong to begin with. However, name changes, imprisonment, death and moves abroad are among the reasons that contribute to negative results.
We have a scale of fees according to the outcome of the enquiry.