diff --git a/common/icat/helpers.py b/common/icat/helpers.py
index 3b47d216..f0ca33be 100644
--- a/common/icat/helpers.py
+++ b/common/icat/helpers.py
@@ -177,8 +177,12 @@ def update_attributes(old_entity, new_entity):
                 f" {old_entity.BeanName} entity"
             )
 
+    return old_entity
+
+
+def push_data_updates_to_icat(entity):
     try:
-        old_entity.update()
+        entity.update()
     except (ICATValidationError, ICATInternalError) as e:
         raise PythonICATError(e)
 
@@ -263,7 +267,8 @@ def update_entity_by_id(client, table_name, id_, new_data):
     # There will only ever be one record associated with a single ID - if a record with
     # the specified ID cannot be found, it'll be picked up by the MissingRecordError in
     # get_entity_by_id()
-    update_attributes(entity_id_data, new_data)
+    updated_icat_entity = update_attributes(entity_id_data, new_data)
+    push_data_updates_to_icat(updated_icat_entity)
 
     # The record is re-obtained from Python ICAT (rather than using entity_id_data) to
     # show to the user whether the change has actually been applied
@@ -388,18 +393,31 @@ def update_entities(client, table_name, data_to_update):
     if not isinstance(data_to_update, list):
         data_to_update = [data_to_update]
 
-    for entity in data_to_update:
+    updated_icat_data = []
+
+    for entity_request in data_to_update:
         try:
-            updated_result = update_entity_by_id(
-                client, table_name, entity["id"], entity
+            entity_data = get_entity_by_id(
+                client,
+                table_name,
+                entity_request["id"],
+                False,
+                return_related_entities=True,
             )
-            updated_data.append(updated_result)
+
+            updated_entity_data = update_attributes(entity_data, entity_request)
+            updated_icat_data.append(updated_entity_data)
         except KeyError:
             raise BadRequestError(
                 "The new data in the request body must contain the ID (using the key:"
                 " 'id') of the entity you wish to update"
             )
 
+    # This separates the local data updates from pushing these updates to icatdb
+    for entity in updated_icat_data:
+        push_data_updates_to_icat(entity)
+        updated_data.append(get_entity_by_id(client, table_name, entity.id, True))
+
     return updated_data
 
 
diff --git a/common/icat/query.py b/common/icat/query.py
index dc35c32a..4dd708a9 100644
--- a/common/icat/query.py
+++ b/common/icat/query.py
@@ -333,4 +333,4 @@ def flatten_query_included_fields(self, includes):
             ICAT query
         """
 
-        return [m for n in (field.split(".") for field in includes) for m in n]
\ No newline at end of file
+        return [m for n in (field.split(".") for field in includes) for m in n]