These Regulations specify the period after which a health board, as soon as is reasonably practicable, must ensure that evidence collected during a self-referral forensic medical examination and stored by it is destroyed. Regulation 2 sets the period as 26 months. That period does not apply in circumstances where the person who underwent the examination requests that the evidence is destroyed and a period of 30 days since that request was made has expired (unless the 26 month period expires earlier than the 30 days), or where a request has been made for the evidence to be transferred to the police.

Regulation 2(2) provides that in circumstances where a forensic medical examination is started on one day, but not completed on that day, the period of 26 months begins on the day that the forensic medical examination is started. These Regulations come into force on 1 April 2022.

These Regulations do not impose any costs on business, charities or the voluntary sector. Accordingly, no Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared.