Data on murders from January 2017 to May 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.025362

I note you seek access to the following information:

1) The number of murders recorded for each of the following calendar years:
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022 up until 31 May 2022 included

2) For each murder please could you provide the following details:
a) The recorded date of the offence (month and year)
b) Whether the murder is ‘solved’ or ‘unsolved’
c) The ‘officer observed ethnicity’ of the victim

3) For the murders which remain unsolved please provide the name of the victim.

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(2)&(3) - Personal Information

Reason for decision

Section 40(2)&(3) - Personal Information - of the Act provides that any information to which a request for information relates, is exempt information if the first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) is satisfied. The first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) states that personal information is exempt if its disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles. If the disclosure of the requested personal data would not contravene the data protection principles, the disclosure must also not contravene Sections 3A(b) and 3B of the Act.

There are six principles that are set out in Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that dictate when the processing of personal data is lawful. The first principle requires that any processing of personal data must be lawful, fair and transparent. Under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:

a. There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
b. The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
c. The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.

Having considered the release of information relating to internal communications staff I have found, having considered the legitimate interest test, that:

a. I cannot identify a legitimate interest in disclosing the date of the offence or the name of the victim.

b. As such it is not necessary to disclosure the information you seek here as no legitimate interest has been identified at point a.

c. Publication of the details such as date of offence or name of victims will identify their family members. This would cause them unwanted and unsolicited intrusion as they all do not have public facing roles. Furthermore release of information under the FOIA would cause them distress through unwanted attention due to the nature of the death.

The provision to refuse access to information under Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3A)(a) of the Act is both absolute and class based. When this exemption is claimed, it is accepted that harm would result from disclosure. There is accordingly no requirement to demonstrate what that harm may be in refusing access to information.

I have refused to disclose the data and the name of the victim owing to other people being identified and have therefore applied s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 governing personal information.

Disclosure

Please refer to the attached spreadsheet below.