Post-Match police reports for 2021/22 football season

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.025050

I note you seek access to the following information:

I would like to request the post-match police reports for the following matches from this season (2021-22).

They are:
Arsenal v Tottenham - 26 September
Arsenal v Chelsea - 22 August
Arsenal v Palace - 18 October 
Brentford v Arsenal - 13 August
Arsenal v Leeds - 26 October
Arsenal v West Ham - 15 December
Arsenal v Liverpool - 16 March
Arsenal v Man Utd - 23 April
Chelsea v Arsenal - 20 April 
Tottenham v Arsenal - 12 May
Tottenham v Chelsea - 19 September
Chelsea v Man Utd - 28 November
Chelsea v Leeds - 11 December
West Ham v Chelsea - 4 December
Chelsea v Tottenham - 5 & 23 January
Tottenham v Chelsea - 12 January
Chelsea v Liverpool - 2 January
Chelsea v Liverpool - 27 February (Wembley)
Chelsea v West Ham - 24 April
Chelsea v Liverpool - 14 May (Wembley)
West Ham v Man Utd - 19 September
West Ham v Tottenham - 24 October
West Ham v Liverpool - 7 November
West Ham v Leeds - 16 January
West Ham v Leeds - 9 January
West Ham v E Frankfurt - 28 April
West Ham v Arsenal -1 May

Decision

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

Section 31(1)(a)(b) - Law Enforcement
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

Section 31(1)(a)(b) – Law Enforcement - Section 31(1)(a) of the Act provides that any information is exempt if its disclosure under the Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the prevention or detection of crime.

I have claimed this exemption in that the release and publication of:

a) The purpose of the report.
b) The Crimint Number: Location of information stored on the Met database.
c) The assessment overall evaluation – Information.
d) The name of police unit – The report must be sent to within the Met Organisation.
e) Total published attendance figures.
f) Away published attendance figures.
g) The Pre-Planned deployment - Information.
h) Resources deployed inside stadium figures.
i) The Pre match report – In full.
j) The During match report – In full.
k) The Post match report – In full.
l) The Evaluation – assessment information.

Would provide persons intent on disrupting the work of the MPS, with information that would assist them in this endeavour.

Disruption to the Work of the MPS - The release and publication of “a” to “k” mentioned above, would provide persons intent on disrupting the work of the MPS, with information that would assist them to do so. In this regard, a person with this intent would be likely to use this information to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime. This would tie up the resources of staff members and cause disruption to the work of the MPS.

Evaluation - I accept that there is a public interest in transparency when any request is made for police information. The public interest favouring release must be balanced against any associated risk and/or prejudice that would be caused by disclosure. Having carefully considered this, I have found that that the public release and publication of “a” to “k” mentioned above, would provide persons intent on disrupting the work of MPS, with information that would assist them in this endeavour. Given this and the fact that the removal of this information does not detract from the quality of the record being disclosed, I have found that the release of this information is not in the public interest. I have accordingly refused to release the information described above in response to your request for information.

Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information - to which a request for information relates, is exempt information if the first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) is satisfied. The first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) states that personal information is exempt if its disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles. If the disclosure of the requested personal data would not contravene the data protection principles, the disclosure must also not contravene Sections 3A(b) and 3B of the Act.

There are six principles that are set out in Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that dictate when the processing of personal data is lawful. The first principle requires that any processing of personal data must be lawful, fair and transparent. Under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:

a. There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
b. The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
c. The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.

You have requested that the MPS disclose the post-match police report of 25 football fixtures listed above.

These reports contains:

a) The Author name and warrant number.
b) The name of the Police Commander.
c) The name of the Football Officer.
d) The name of officer completing the report.

Contributors to the respective post-match report themselves.

Having considered the release of this personal data, I have found, having considered the legitimate interest test, that “a” to “d” above were recorded to provide contact details in respect of the report and its content. This personal information was recorded for internal use only. I have not identified a legitimate interest that would be satisfied through releasing each employee’s name. Additionally it is of note that the redaction of this information does not detract from the quality of the record disclosed.

The provision to refuse access to information under Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3A)(a) of the Act is both absolute and class based. When this exemption is claimed, it is accepted that harm would result from disclosure. There is accordingly no requirement to demonstrate what that harm may be in refusing access to information.

Disclosure

I have disclosed the requested information, post-match police reports to you.

Please find attached, the Met Police Post-match Debrief Report for the 25 football fixtures requested above with this notice.

In disclosing the Post-Match Debrief Reports to you, I have removed:

a) The purpose of the report – The entire information.
b) The Author name and warrant number.
c) The Crimint Number: Location of information stored on the Met database.
d) The assessment overall evaluation – The entire information.
e) The name of police unit – The report must be sent to within the Met Organisation.
f) Total published attendance figures.
g) Away published attendance figures.
h) The name of the Police Commander.
i) The name of the Football Officer.
j) Pre-Planned deployment – The entire information.
k) Resources deployed inside stadium figures.
l) The Pre match report – Its content in parts.
m) The During match report – Its content in parts.
n) The Post match report – Its content in parts.
o) The name of officer completing the report.
p) Evaluation assessment - The entire information.

This “**********” denote where exempt material has been removed.