Information related to child sex exploitation
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026875
I note you seek access to the following information:
1. Please forward this request to the places and people given below and confirm that each has received this request:
DPS Unit, Directorate of Professional Standards, DCI Vicki Lewis CRU Team, Complaint Resolution Unit, DCI Rich Williamson DASO, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences Unit, D.S. Annette Clark Sir Mark Rowley
2. Please provide your recorded policy on dealing with a senior police officer who is intransigently covering up information relating to child sex exploitation by refusing to disclose information held.
3. For each of the above, please provide the procedure used when a report of covering up information concerning child sex exploitation is received.
4. Please provide direct email contacts for each of the four people named above.
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:
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.
This is best demonstrated by the FOI disclosures on the Disclosure Log section of the MPS website:
I have considered the information below:
In response to question 4 of your request:
Please provide direct email contacts for each of the four people named above.
In most cases, Personal Data is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, as I will explain below.
A Freedom of Information Act request is not a private transaction. Both the request itself, and any information disclosed, are considered suitable for open publication. This is because, under Freedom of Information, any information disclosed is released into the wider public domain, effectively to the world and not just to one individual.
Where an individual is requesting his or her own personal data the information is always exempt.
Where an individual is requesting third party personal data the MPS must ensure that any action taken adheres to the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR. To clarify, the Freedom of Information Act only allows disclosure of personal data if that disclosure would be compliant with the principles for processing personal data. These principles are outlined under section 34 of the DPA 2018 and under Article 5 of the UK GDPR.
I have considered your request for the above information, within the provisions of the FOIA and found that I am not permitted under the FOIA to disclose the following information:
• The direct email contacts for each of the four people named above.
The above requests for information is exempt under Section 40(2)(3)&(4) - Personal information of the FOIA.
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) - Personal Information - The Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for Personal Data and this is known as the section 40 exemption.
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.
Q1 - Please forward this request to the places and people given below and confirm that each has received this request:
DPS Unit, Directorate of Professional Standards, DCI Vicki Lewis CRU Team, Complaint Resolution Unit, DCI Rich Williamson DASO, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences Unit, D.S. Annette Clark Sir Mark Rowley
The FOI Act provides the right to request recorded information. This type of question is not a valid FOIA request under Section 8(1)(c) of the Act.
Section 8 of the Act states:
8. (1) in this Act any reference to a “request for information” is a reference to such a request which -—
(a) Is in writing,
(b) States the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence, and
(c) Describes the information requested.
ICO guidance for making FOIA requests, advises the public that a FOIA request can be in the form of a question rather than a request for specific documents, however a public authority does not have to answer your question if this would mean creating new information or giving an opinion or judgment that is not already recorded.
Section 84 of the Act states: Information is defined in section 84 of the Act as 'information recorded in any form'. The Act therefore only extends to requests for recorded information. It does not require public authorities to answer questions generally; only if they already hold the answers in recorded form. The Act does not extend to requests for information or advice about legislation, policies or their implementation, or the merits or demerits of any proposal or action - unless, of course, the answer to any such request is already held in recorded form.
Disclosure
Q2 - Please provide your recorded policy on dealing with a senior police officer who is intransigently covering up information relating to child sex exploitation by refusing to disclose information held.
The MPS policy is to follow the IOPC Statutory guidance, record a conduct matter refer to the IOPC. Please see refer to the below.
Q3 - For each of the above, please provide the procedure used when a report of covering up information concerning child sex exploitation is received.