Slipped in a Shop, No CCTV – Have You Actually Lost Your Claim?
By David Healey, Senior Solicitor — May 2026
Quick Answer
If the shop has lost or deleted the CCTV from my slip, have I lost my claim?
Losing CCTV does not end your claim. The Civil Procedure Rules require defendants to preserve relevant evidence from the moment a claim is on the cards. Failure to do so has consequences at trial — for them, not for you.
Multiple other forms of evidence have to exist. Accident books, cleaning logs, prior-complaint records, manager incident reports and the names of staff who attended: every shop is required to keep these by law or industry practice.
Pre-action disclosure can compel the shop to hand them over. Under Civil Procedure Rule 31.16, your solicitor can apply to court to force disclosure of relevant material before formal proceedings start.
Adverse inference can work in your favour at trial. If a court finds the CCTV should have been preserved and was not, the judge can infer that what it showed would have supported your case — not the shop’s.
You went back to the shop a week later to ask about the CCTV. The manager told you it had already been recorded over.
Or you wrote, asking for it. Three weeks passed. Then the email arrived. The footage was no longer available.
If that has happened to you, you are not alone. It is one of the most common scenarios slip-and-trip claimants in England and Wales encounter. And it is one of the most misunderstood. The CCTV is not the only piece of evidence the shop is required to keep — and losing it is not the dead end most people assume.
But I Slipped in a Shop — Doesn’t My Claim Depend on the CCTV?
The misconception
“No CCTV. So I’ve lost my claim… right?”
What people think
“The CCTV is the evidence.”
If it’s gone, the claim is gone.
What actually matters
CCTV is one source of evidence — not the only one.
And the shop was legally required to preserve it.
The same law applies if you…
Fell from a faulty chair
Were hit by falling stock
Were burned by a spilled drink
This is the assumption almost everyone arrives with. CCTV is the visible evidence. It is the piece a reader can imagine themselves watching. So when it goes missing, the claim can feel missing too.
The legal reality is different. The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 requires shops, supermarkets, restaurants and other premises open to the public to keep visitors reasonably safe. The duty is the same whether there was CCTV or not. The question a court will ask is not “is there footage”, but whether the occupier took reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable injury.
This applies to any injury that happens in a premises open to the public, not just a slip on a wet floor. A fall from a collapsed chair in a pub, a hit from falling stock in a supermarket, a burn from a spilled drink in a restaurant: the same legal framework on evidence governs all of them.
CCTV is one possible source of evidence for that question. It is not the only one. And critically, the shop’s obligations to preserve relevant evidence kick in long before the case ever reaches court.
What the Law Actually Says About Lost CCTV
Two separate legal frameworks govern what a shop must do with its evidence. One sets the maximum time the shop is allowed to keep CCTV. The other sets the minimum it is required to preserve once a claim arises. The two are often confused — but they pull in very different directions.
Framework 1: Data Protection
UK GDPR Article 5(1)(e) and Data Protection Act 2018
Personal data (which CCTV is) must not be kept “longer than necessary”. Most shops set a rolling retention of around 30 days as a result. This is the rule that produces the “we don’t have it any more” response — and it is the half of the picture most claimants hear.
Framework 2: Civil Procedure Rules
Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims
Defendants must preserve relevant evidence once a claim is on the horizon. That obligation overrides routine deletion the moment the shop is on notice. A staff member knowing about your fall on the day is often enough to start the duty running.
Which means the real question becomes: when did the shop become aware of the claim? If a member of staff knew about your fall on the day, the obligation to preserve the CCTV started that day — not on the date a formal letter of claim arrived.
What Other Evidence Must Exist — Even When CCTV Doesn’t
Even where the CCTV is genuinely gone, several other categories of evidence still exist by law or industry practice — whether your injury was a slip, a fall from collapsed furniture, a hit from falling stock, or a burn from served food. All of them can be disclosed if your solicitor asks for them in a properly drafted letter of claim.
The accident book
Every workplace and public-facing premises is expected to record incidents. The entry — or the absence of one — is itself evidence.
Cleaning rotas and sign-off sheets
The cleaning schedule, the cleaner’s name and the timestamp. The document most often missing from disclosure unless your solicitor specifically asks.
Prior-complaint records
If other people slipped in the same place before, the complaint history may have been logged. A pattern of prior reports is powerful.
Manager incident reports
What the duty manager wrote up after your incident — including who attended, what was said and what was done — often exists as an internal document.
A Detail That Often Gets Missed
The cleaning rota for the day of your slip is often the single most powerful piece of evidence in a wet-floor case — and it is the document most likely to be quietly omitted from disclosure unless your solicitor specifically asks for it. The rota shows two things: who was supposed to clean that area at that time, and whether they actually signed it off. If the cleaner’s signature is missing for the slot before your fall, that is the case in one line.
How Does “Adverse Inference” Work in My Favour?
Adverse inference is the principle that allows a court to assume the missing evidence would have hurt the side that lost it. In plain English: if the shop should have preserved the CCTV and did not, a judge is entitled to infer that what it showed would have helped your case — not theirs.
The test is not whether the shop intended to destroy the footage. The test is whether they should have preserved it once they were on notice of a potential claim. If a manager saw you fall and the shop did nothing to preserve the footage from that day, the inference is open to argument.
This shifts the balance of the case. The shop now has to explain why the CCTV is gone. In many of the slip-and-trip cases Carter & Carter handles, that explanation is the moment liability gets accepted.
“In cases other firms have walked away from, we find the evidence the first firm never asked for. The shop’s own paperwork is usually where the answer sits — not the CCTV.”
— David Healey, Senior Solicitor, Carter & Carter
What Should I Do Right Now If My CCTV Is Gone?
Four practical actions, in this order. None of them require you to have done anything within hours of the accident — but if it is still fresh, do them today.
Write to the shop in formal terms.
A letter or email requesting the accident book entry, the cleaning rota for the day, any incident report, and any preserved CCTV. Keep a copy. The date you send this letter often matters.
Note the names of any staff who responded at the time.
Even if you cannot reach them now, your solicitor can. Staff names are witnesses the shop cannot make disappear.
List any prior incidents you heard mentioned.
A previous slip in the same spot — even mentioned in passing by a staff member or another customer at the time — is a powerful evidential line.
Speak to a specialist personal injury solicitor early.
Pre-action disclosure under Civil Procedure Rule 31.16 works best when activated promptly. The clock that matters here is not the three-year limitation period — it is the practical window before evidence becomes unreachable.
Where Did Your Accident Happen?
If your accident happened in one of the specific settings below, the next page covers the rules for that type of premises in more detail.
Our Fee Structure
10%
When settled without court proceedings (approximately 99% of our claims)
25%
Only if court proceedings become necessary
Related Guides
Slipped in a Supermarket — Your Evidence Guide
Wet Floor Slip in a Public Place — Who Has to Prove What
The Occupiers’ Liability Act Explained
Wondering whether you still have a slip-and-trip claim worth pursuing?
A free 15-minute conversation with Carter & Carter — straight through to a senior solicitor, no call centre, no junior, no obligation.
Freephone · No Win No Fee · Accidents in Public Places specialists since 2007
About the Author
David Healey — Senior Solicitor
David Healey is a Senior Solicitor at Carter & Carter Solicitors in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire. Qualified in 2005, David has spent over 21 years helping people injured in public places and at work. Accidents in public places claims are one of the firm’s four specialist practice areas. Carter & Carter is one of very few firms in England and Wales to publish its fee structure upfront and to handle every claim personally at senior solicitor level from start to finish.