Male victims of domestic abuse from September to December 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.022611

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. How many offences of domestic abuse (both physical and emotional/ psychological) have been reported to your police from 1 September 2021 to 31 December 2021 (only 4 month's worth) with male victims?

a. Please include a breakdown of the gender of the alleged perpetrators (i.e. how many were men/women).

In the interest of clarity, I wanted to let you know that I filed a similar FOI last year, but the period specified for that data request was from January 2016 to September 2021. In this instance, I'm looking for the reports filed in the remaining four months of last year.

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 38(1) Health and safety
Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3)(a)(i)(ii)(b) 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 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (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.

To disclose the number of offences of Domestic Abuse with male victims only, broken down by major and minor category for the time period requested where the value is too low could cause an individual to be identified and interfere with any ongoing investigation. This cannot be allowed. Consideration must also be given to the mental state of the individual/victim/families if identified.

Section 31 - Disclosure of the number of offences of Domestic Abuse with male victims only, broken down by major and minor category for the time period requested where the value is too low risks the identity of the victim/suspect being revealed. This may cause an investigation to collapse as the individual could be targeted, or undermine the confidence in the police.

Disclosure of the information requested could identify persons captured by the scope of this request. Individuals could analyse the information (and along with local knowledge) identify the individual concerned. This would hinder the prevention and detection of crime and also prejudice the MPS's ability to fairly conduct an investigation.

Section 38 - Section 38(1) of the Act provides an exemption from the disclosure of information which would, or would be likely to endanger the physical or mental health of any individual, or endanger the safety of any individual.

Disclosure of the number of offences of Domestic Abuse with male victims only, broken down by major and minor category for the time period requested where the value is too low will provide any person with knowledge of the offence, incident and where it took place, to use the information disclosed to work out who the individual may be and cause that person (or others) much distress and harm. This could compromise the mental health of the person involved or/and the ongoing or any other future investigation.

Disclosure of the number of offences of Domestic Abuse with male victims only, broken down by major and minor category for the time period requested where the value is too low could jeopardise the mental state and safety of the individual. This will not be in the public interest. If this information was to fall into the hands of others involved/aware the information can be used to undermine the security and safety of the wider community and/or the person concerned.

Section 40 - 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 number of offences of Domestic Abuse with male victims only, broken down by major and minor category for the time period requested where the value is too low

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 Schedule 19 of the Data Protection Act 2018, specifically Section 58 of that schedule).

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.

The harm identified above, is reduced by not disclosing low value statistics, to ensure the identity of subjects captured by this request is not revealed.

It is imperative that the safety and identity of those captured by this request, or the compromising of the investigation was not a factor, when trying to be transparent in disclosing as much information as possible. The MPS has a duty of care to the communities served. In view of the arguments provided above, it is our opinion, that disclosure in full of the number of offences of Domestic Abuse with male victims only, broken down by major and minor category for the time period requested where the value is too low cannot be permitted.

It should not be surmised that we are applying Sections 31, 38 & 40 to the same pieces of information.

The MPS response for the rest of this request permits the disclosure of statistical information which is not likely to lead to the identification of individuals.

Disclosure

Please see attached spreadsheet for the data for your request.

Please note that in the attached spreadsheet * denotes a redacted too low value.