Refusal for an officer to take a test when requested

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026902

I note you seek access to the following information:

What is the policy regarding any officer refusing to take a test when requested.
Is refusal considered an absolute offence such as refusal to provide a specimen of breath.
How many officers have refused a with cause drugs test.
How many of these officers faced a misconduct hearing.
How many of these officers were sacked.
What was the average timespan from refusal to finding.

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 21 - Information accessible by other means
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

Before I explain the reasons for the decisions I have made in relation to your request, I thought that it would be helpful if I outline the parameters set out by the Act within which a request for information can be answered. The Act creates a statutory right of access to information held by public authorities. A public authority in receipt of a request must, if permitted, confirm if the requested information is held by that public authority and, if so, then communicate that information to the applicant.

The right of access to information is not without exception and is subject to a number of exemptions which are designed to enable public authorities to withhold information that is not suitable for release. Importantly, 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.

Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information - Details of an investigation could cause an individual to be identified and is therefore exempted in this case.

Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 confirms that information which relates to an identified or identifiable living individual is Personal Data.

The Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for Personal Data and this is known as the section 40 exemption. Some of the information sought under your Freedom of Information request includes the following which we consider to be Personal Data

- Low numbers of people within the data that could, if disclosed, identify an individual.

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.

Section 21 Information accessible by other means - The information requested has been identified as being accessible via other means as it is already published. Where information is already in the public domain we are not required to re-publish the data; instead public authorities are required to direct you to the information, which we have done in this instance. This action is in accordance with section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act

Disclosure

Regarding question 1 and 2

What is the policy regarding any officer refusing to take a test when requested.
Is refusal considered an absolute offence such as refusal to provide a specimen of breath.

Section 21 - Information accessible by other means

I am pleased to inform you that the information requested The information requested can be found on page 9 of drug-andor-alcohol-testing-policy2 - (met.police.uk) where it states, “Refusal to supply a sample will be dealt with as if a positive test had been provided. The officer or member of police staff will be subject to a Gross Misconduct investigation by DPS which could lead to dismissal. Any recruit who refuses to provide a sample will have their application terminated.”

Information provided in the following link may also interest you. This underpins force policies generally - Circular: Testing Police Officers for substance misuse - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Regarding questions 3, 4, 5 and 6

The MPS can confirm that information is held in relation to the following questions.

How many officers have refused a with cause drugs test.
How many of these officers faced a misconduct hearing.
How many of these officers were sacked .
What was the average timespan from refusal to finding.

Due to the low amount of people within the data I have applied the exemption provided under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act.