Crime outcomes concluded where the suspect was aged under 10 from April 2020 to March 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.025126

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. For the 2020-21 financial year please state how many crime outcomes were concluded by your force because the age of the suspect was under 10, and so below the level of criminal responsibility.

2. For each of these crime outcomes please provide me with a table showing
(i) the age of the suspect and
(ii) the crime associated with that child, which was not pursued because of their young age.

Decision

Having located and considered the relevant information. I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some information has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Partial Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 40(2)&(3) - Personal Information

Reason for decision

When a request is made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), a public authority must inform you, when permitted, whether the information requested is held. It must then communicate that information to you. If a public authority decides that it is cannot comply with all or part of a request, it must cite the appropriate section or exemption of the Act and provide you with a suitable explanation. It is important to note that the Act is designed to place information into the public domain, that is, once access to information is granted to one person under the Act, it is then considered public information and must be communicated to any individual should a request be received.

I have considered the information:

• The crime outcome were the named suspects are under 10 years showing the age of the suspect and the crime associated with that child.

If the MPS disclosed the information requested, it would be possible for an individual(s) to be identified, due to the relatively low number of crime records, as specified within the scope of your request. It would be possible to use the specifics of this data to narrow down individuals. The risk of disclosure of personal information is heightened because you have asked for information for a relatively recent time period.

The definition of 'personal data' is far wider than simply the name or address of a living individual. 'Personal data' is defined in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998, as data that relates to a living individual who can be identified from those data or from other information that is in the possession of, or likely to come into the possession of, the data controller.

Section 40(2)&(3) - Personal Information - The Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for Personal Data and this is known as the section 40 exemption.

The information sought under your Freedom of Information request includes the following which we consider to be Personal Data:
• The crime outcome were the named suspects are under 10 years showing the age of the suspect and the crime associated with that child.

Where the request is seeking access to third party personal data the section 40(2) exemption may be engaged.

In order to apply the Section 40(2) exemption, the disclosure of the requested information must satisfy either the first, second or third conditions as defined by subsections 3A, 3B and 4A of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (as amended by Section 58 of the Data Protection Act 2018).

The first condition ensures that the exemption would apply in circumstances where the disclosure of the information would breach any of the Data Protection Act 2018 principles.

There are six Data Protection principles set out in the 2018 Act and these can be found at section 34.

In this instance I have decided that the disclosure of the Personal Data would be incompatible with the first Data Protection principle which states that the processing (in this case the disclosure) of the data must be both lawful and fair.

Disclosure

I have disclosed the following information:

For the 2020-21 financial year please state how many crime outcomes were concluded by your force because the age of the suspect was under 10, and so below the level of criminal responsibility.

Number of Home Office Notifiable Offences with Outcome 11: 50, for the period - 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, were the named suspect is under 10 years, below the age of criminal responsibility.