Transgender hate crimes from 2011 to 2021
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.21.022424
I note you seek access to the following information:
1. The number of transgender hate crimes reported per year from 2011 - 2021 (inclusive).
2. The number of prosecutions for transgender hate crimes per year from 2011 - 2021 (inclusive).
3. The number of transgender hate crimes that resulted in no further action, reported per year from 2011 - 2021 (inclusive).
4. The number of successful prosecutions for transgender hate crimes per year from 2011 – 2021 (inclusive).
5. The number of transgender police officers and their proportion as a percentage of all police officers, reported per year from 2011 - 2021 (inclusive).
6. The details of any police policies or initiatives to increase the detection and/or prosecution of hate crimes against transgender people.
7. The details or any police policies or initiatives to increase the trust the transgender community have in the police.
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 40 – Personal Information
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.
In response to your request:
Q3 - The number of transgender hate crimes that resulted in no further action, reported per year from 2011 - 2021 (inclusive).
Please note: The MPS systems do not record no further action (NFA) for crimes. Instead, we record clear ups and outcomes for offences.
With this in mind, I have considered the information below:
• A list of Clear Ups / Outcomes results for Transgender Hate Offences, recorded between 01/01/2011 and 31/12/2021.
Unfortunately, this information is exempt under Section 40(2)(3) - Personal information of the FOIA.
If the MPS disclosed the list of Clear Ups / Outcomes results for Transgender Hate Offences for each calendar year, it would be possible for an individual to be identified due to the relatively low number, of the type of Clear Up / Outcome result shown in some calendar years, as specified within the scope of your request. It would be possible to use the specifics of this data to narrow down individuals. To disclose information which could cause harm to individuals cannot be allowed.
The need to prevent this has invoked a section 40 exemption being applied to the request, as any information that identifies an individual is 'personal information', as defined under the data protection act 1998.
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.
We consider the list of Clear Ups / Outcomes results for Transgender Hate to be Personal Data.
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.
Disclosure
Q1 - The number of transgender hate crimes reported per year from 2011 - 2021 (inclusive).
Please find attached a spreadsheets in which the requested information has been provided.
IMPORTANT:
• Please ensure that the note section within the spreadsheet is read in conjunction with the data in this report to ensure that it is interpreted correctly.
Q2 - The number of prosecutions for transgender hate crimes per year from 2011 – 2021 (inclusive).
The information you have requested is not held by the MPS.
Please note that the police service is responsible for the investigation of offences, however the subsequent prosecution - and potentially a conviction - would be a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service.
This is a link to request information from Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service
Q4 - The number of successful prosecutions for transgender hate crimes per year from 2011 – 2021 (inclusive).
In response question 2 above, there is no question to answer.
Q5 - The number of transgender police officers and their proportion as a percentage of all police officers, reported per year from 2011 - 2021 (inclusive).
The information you have requested in the year 2011 to 2020 is not held by the MPS.
The MPS started recording this information in 2021. It is self-defined and voluntary to provide, so the data may not be a completely accurate reflection. However, from the data recorded – since June 2021, we recorded 4 full time police officers as Transgender on PSOP (Police Single Operating System). This is 0.01% of all police officers.
Q6 - The details of any police policies or initiatives to increase the detection and/or prosecution of hate crimes against transgender people.
The MPS has refreshed its overall approach to tackling Hate crime and a Strategic Pan- London Hate crime board has been created. Chaired at Commander Level, the board also includes MOPAC, Home office and Chief exec representation from various community and faith groups from across London. This includes GALOP
This is supported by a Tactical Delivery Group, with a Pan London Partnership Group aligned to it to ensure wider community feedback is included.
Revised Strategic Aims for hate crime are:
• To address the issue of under reporting, identify and eliminate barriers for all communities who suffer as victims of hate crime
• To improve training and awareness of hate crime issues
• To improve justice outcomes across the MPS and CPS relating to hate crime
• To ensure that appropriate pathways exist to support victims of hate crime and that the services offered are reflective of the victimology across London
A new Hate Crime Authorised Professional Practice (APP) document has also been launched to assist all officers and staff reporting and investigating hate crime matters. The new APP outlines the importance of getting it right from the outset and completing a hate crime risk assessment to ensure victims are supported and offenders are held to account.
The New APP provides clear guidance from first victim contact through to completion of an investigation.
The MPS is also working in partnership with CPS hate crime leads on transgender hate crime to improve our SD rate and are about to commence of case reviews of Transphobic hate
crime reports.
We are also currently working with MOPAC and partners on the Mayors Police and Crime plan (PCP) consultation exercise to ensure we listen to the concerns the communities have around hate crime matters.
The 124H Hate Crime Risk Assessment tool was launched in November 2020 and is designed to improve the initial investigation of all hate crime reports, by providing a risk assessment framework to guide officers to deliver a better service to victims and improve pathways for victim support. There are bespoke questions in this risk assessment related to gender identity.
Each BCU has a Hate crime outcomes and performance (HCOP) officer. They are specialists in hate crime and work with the MPS’s Hate Crime Policy & Development Team to ensure a consistent, professional and victim focused approach to hate crime across the MPS. The HCPDT support the HCOPs to coordinate the best support to victims, justice outcomes and to problem solve with partners at a BCU level.
The Metropolitan Police LGBT+ Network has recently refreshed its LGBT+ Adviser scheme, with 115 Advisers embedded in commands to create a broad representation and be a source of advice and information.
CPIE:
Within the Crime Prevention, Inclusion and Engagement (CPIE) Unit, CPIE Engagement has been working closely with the LGBT IAG on documents to support and educate SIO’s regarding transgender individuals to ensure that we can best support the community, whilst investigating crime and in everyday life.
CPIE Engagement are working with the Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) whom are the largest and oldest gender clinic in the UK dating back to 1966 and accept referrals from all over the UK for adults with issues related to gender and are part of the NHS. The GIC are a multi-disciplinary administrative and clinical team, including psychologists, psychiatrists, endocrinologists, speech and language therapists and nurses. They work together in order to provide holistic gender care, focusing on the biological/medical, psychological and social aspects of gender.
The MPS is building relations with the GIC and with this are developing an understanding of the areas within the Transgender and Non-Binary community that may not have been known before, allowing the MPS to engage better with this community, and building trust and confidence by listening to all of their experiences and acting on this information accordingly. A meeting is held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month with the GIC and is called the MPS and GIC Forum. This forum has a Terms of Reference and an authorisation document- All of which can be found on BOX.
CPIE Engagement has also created a Trans and Non-Binary Forum, which again, has a Terms of Reference and an authorisation document- All of which can be found on BOX. This Forum includes individuals that meet the joining criteria and no persons gender identity nor sexual orientation is disclosed on any documentation whatsoever. The notes from the meeting are generalised to protect the individuals and the core notes from the meeting are harnessed and acted on accordingly. Having this forum allows for the community to speak freely and be honest with the MPS and policing in general, where police are going wrong and what can be better.
There are discussions within the forum of personal experiences as well as gathering community tensions on current, ongoing and future issues/incidents within the community and of issues directly and indirectly effecting the community. From December 2021 meeting, it was highlighted that the community have extremely little trust and confidence in reporting hate crime and are unsure about that the definition of a hate crime is and what level of service to expect from the police service they are dealing with. CPIE have invite a person from CPIC to speak on the next forum meeting in January 2022 to explain this and help the community understand, to improve the confidence in them reporting any hate crime, and helping to spread this information with others in the community.
Q7 - The details or any police policies or initiatives to increase the trust the transgender community have in the police.
CPIE
CPIE Engagement have created the Trans and Non-Binary Forum and the MPS and GIC Forum to build relations with the community and to give them a voice to express their thoughts, feelings and concerns. Working with the GIC allows the MPS to understand the health, both physical and psychological, of the community and how best to support them moving forward, in a sustainable and consistent manner, regardless of being a victim or suspect of crime.
The Transgender Engagement Lead for the LGBT+ Network within MPS, has arranged and held the Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) event in March 2021 and the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) event in November 2021, speaking about relevant topics effecting the community. County forces joined the call as guest speakers and to attend and listen. These events were kept internally within police forces and not sent out to the general public to help monitor the guests on the call