Random swabbing of pedestrians on a night out by MPS officers

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.022592

I note you seek access to the following information:

I would like to know under what legal laws your offices conducted the random swabbing of pedestrians on a night out

Is this a legal obligation and we’re people advised that they could decline the officers request

How did you identify those people swabbed?

Do you have ethnicity and protected characteristics stats to back up your decisions or did you directly target groups based on their appeared age, gender which I will remind you is illegal as you are singling out a person based on their protected characteristic.

Do you have plans to conduct these searches only in the particular area or will this search be expanded to include the business quarters and parliament.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

I would like to know under what legal laws your offices conducted the random swabbing of pedestrians on a night out?

It was a condition of entry for the venues that were taking part in the operation. These conditions were set by the licencee. No statutory powers were used to obtain the swabs. The swabs were not "random" they were performed on people who wanted to enter the venue.

Is this a legal obligation and we’re people advised that they could decline the officers request?

As it was a condition of entry for the venue, they had the right not to be swabbed. But if they refused, the staff of the venue would then refuse them entry to the venue. No other action would take place, unless other evidence of an offence was discovered.

How did you identify those people swabbed?

They were people who wanted to enter the venues taking part in the operation.

Do you have ethnicity and protected characteristics stats to back up your decisions or did you directly target groups based on their appeared age, gender which I will remind you is illegal as you are singling out a person based on their protected characteristic.

As it was a condition of entry for the venue, set by the licencee, the only criteria for being swabbed was wanting to enter the venue. No other information was considered, or recorded, when the requirement for a swab was established.

Do you have plans to conduct these searches only in the particular area or will this search be expanded to include the business quarters and parliament

These operations are part of a response to violence within the night time economies across London, especially violence against women and girls. The tactics have been, and will be used in conjunction with licenced venues across London, allowing them to enforce an entry requirement dependent on a negative drug swab. There are no plans to extend these operations outside of licenced premises within the night time economies.