MPS' General Investigation Policy Statement

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.027182

I note you seek access to the following information:

In your General Investigation Policy Statement, it says that the MPS will comply with minimum standards of investigation of crime with regards to six different areas detailed in toolkits, and that these toolkits contain explanation on expected actions the investigating officer must carry out or justify why they did not. Where can these toolkits be found?

CLARIFICATION -
On the 22/11/2022 you were informed that the Policy you requested had been superseded and were given links to the College of Policing website & the MPS website for more up to date information.

On the 23/11/2022 you responded with the following:

Thank you for your email of 22 November 2022. I have read carefully your response in the attached file of your email.

In your response you mention that the toolkits have been superseded, can you clarify with what?

I have looked at the APP guide prior to contacting you. But I still cannot find information describing the minimal investigation standards constituting of the six key areas (immediate action, scene, forensics, victims/witnesses, suspects, other actions/evidence), which were previously detailed in the toolkits.

In particular I am looking for the number of 'expected actions' under the six key areas.

Can the 2018 out of date toolkits be disclosed? If not can you point me to information which supersedes them?

I am not necessarily looking for in date information, the old copies would be helpful.

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) – Law Enforcement

Reason for decision

I have disclosed the 2018 Investigation Toolkit as requested, some of this document (namely 1 email address) has been redacted under the following exemption:

Section 31(1)(a) - Law Enforcement - 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 the telephone number and email address of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Unit 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 MPS Employees - The release and publication of the telephone number of the MPS Counter Terrorism Unit, would provide persons intent on disrupting the work of the unit, 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 make inappropriate contact with members of staff working in this unit. This would tie up the resources of these members of staff and cause disruption to the work of the MPS, hindering its ability to prevent and/or detect crime.

When considering whether the release of information is in the public interest, I have to consider whether the public interest is in favour of releasing information into the public domain or whether there is sufficient reason to support withholding the requested information. Having considered your request, 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 the telephone numbers of members of staff employed in the MPS Counter Terrorism Unit 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 records 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.

Disclosure

Please find attached information pursuant to your request above, again please note that this is the 2018 toolkits and this has been superseded by new policy.