Do this mean if you’re assessed as medium risk a notice might still be issued by someone who literally doesn’t even know you?

There’s a previous post or two saying the notices don’t generally get issued once you are assessed medium. So hopefully a notice being issued in this case would not be usual. There surely is a big difference between a package holiday with the wife and travelling alone or going to a high risk destination. 

There is a publicly available list of all the high risk countries. So you can use that as a start. If you are rated high risk as an individual, then you should probably forget about travelling until your risk is lower. Guidance does suggest that medium risk individuals are assessed on a case by case basis. But we do have quite a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that Europe is a safe bet for most people, apart from Cyprus.

The most up-to-date 'Section 172' country list that punter99 references above can be found here: List of countries under section 172 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (accessible) (June 2026) - GOV.UK

Our understanding is that notification of travel to any country on the above list for anybody subject to notification requirements should result in an Interpol Green Notice being requested, regardless of the individual's risk level. However, anecdotally, we have heard from some individuals who have travelled to some of these countries without issue, having made the appropriate notification. Our advice however would remain that it would be very risky for anybody subject to notification requirements to travel to a Section 172 country. From our experience, if a S.172 country does receive an Interpol notification, they will generally refuse entry and you will be returned (at your own expense) to the UK.

Our understanding is also that the police are expected to issue a Green Notice for anybody they consider to pose a High/Very High Risk of Serious Harm (ROSH) when they notify travel to any country. This could result in refusal of entry in other countries too, although our experience is that refusal of entry altogether is extremely rare in most European (aside from as previously mentioned, Cyprus) countries. This specific risk level (ROSH) does not always align with what individuals might think or have been previously told, or what a Judge might say in court, by the way, which is worth bearing in mind. Almost all people subject to notification requirements will, at some stage, be assessed as posing a High risk, but most will find that risk reduces over time. If an individual has a copy of their most recent 'OASys Assessment', they will be able to find their ROSH risk levels there. ROSH scores have different categories - Risk to Children, Risk to Public, Risk to Known Adult, Risk to CJS Staff, and for people in prison, Risk to other Prisoners.

Decision-makers are instructed to consider notification on a case-by-case basis for offenders managed as Low/Medium ROSH. Again, as others have mentioned, the local officers only perform a risk assessment in relation to the travel arrangements and check the notification requirements have been complied with - they do not make the final determination about whether an Interpol Green Notice is in fact issued, although it might be fair to assume they probably make a 'recommendation'. The actual notification is done by a small team at HQ at the NCA in Manchester, who are 'Interpol Liaison Officers'. 

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