Information about the Special Constabulary

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.024529

I note you seek access to the following information:

For ease of clarification, due to the various rank titles and designations, I have outlined my request using the ‘traditional’ rank structure (4 bars - Chief Commandant/Officer. 3 bars - Divisional Commandant/Officer. 2 bars – District Officer/Sub-Divisional Officer). Information is not required on Section Officers/Special Sergeants. With the above in mind, I would be grateful if you could provide me with the following information:

(Four bar insignia officers)
1 - The name and designation of your head of the Special Constabulary, including any honours, as well as their force address, email address, and any force telephone number.

(Three bar insignia officers)
2 - The names and designations of your senior command officers (usually three bar, non-operational based at HQ), including any honours, as well as their force address, email address and any force telephone number.

(Two bar insignia officers)
3 - The names and designations of all of your territorial “DO’s”, including any honours, as well as the stations they are based at and the territorial areas they cover. Additionally, their email addresses and any force telephone number.

Honours
4 - The names of any Special Constabulary holders of Crown honours (eg MBE).

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(1) – Information accessible by other means
Section 31(1)(a)(b) – Law Enforcement
Section 40(2) and 40(3A)(a) (Personal data)

Reason for decision

I can advise that some of this information 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.

- I have also decided to disclose information in how you may contact an officer or member of police staff.

- Any further details, such as email addresses, phone numbers, stations based and whether an individual has received an Honour, is exempt by virtue of section 31(1)(a)(b) – Law enforcement and S.40(2) and (3A)(a)– Personal information

Section 31(1)(a)(b) - Law Enforcement - Email addresses are used by police officer and staff in the execution of their duty. The release of an individual email address of MPS employees would allow those individual’s intent in disrupting policing processes to achieve this aim. This is because, as mentioned above, any release under FOI is in effect a release to the World and all such disclosures are also placed on our Publication scheme website.

The release of the email address of a member of staff, would provide persons intent on disrupting the work of the MPS, with information that would assist them to do so. In this regard, a person with this intent would be likely to use this information to make inappropriate contact with an individual member of staff and/or send them vast amounts of unsolicited correspondence.

Such a disclosure would therefore have an adverse effect, by causing disruption to the work of the MPS. This in turn hinders the ability of the MPS to carry out its core functions in law enforcement.

The public interest has been met in this case by provision of the link to our Executive Structure and MPS ‘Contact Us’ details shown above.

This decision is based on the understanding that the public interest is not what interests the public, but what would be of greater good to the community as a whole.

Section 40(2) and 40(3A)(a) - Personal Information - of the Freedom of Information Act is applicable as disclosure at this level of detail, such as whether an individual had received an Honour in the context of this request, would breach the 1st data protection principle that requires personal data to be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals.

There is no presumption of disclosure in relation to ‘personal data’ which is defined as: ‘any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual’

“Identifiable living individual” means a living individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—
(a) an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or
(b) one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individual.’

For such disclosure to be lawful, it would be necessary to satisfy a condition within Article 6 of the GDPR. Article 6 sets out the six lawful bases, applying to all processing; one of which must be in place in every case of disclosure of personal data under FOIA, in accordance with the First Data Protection Principle.

I am satisfied that the disclosure of personal data in the requested information would be unwarranted in the circumstances of this request. This is because the disclosure of this personal data is not necessary to satisfy the legitimate public interest and in relation to personal data, there is no presumption of disclosure. Furthermore, none of the conditions specified within Article 6 of the GDPR would be met.

Disclosure

Executive structure of MPS

The attached link provides the Executive Structure of the MPS. Please select the drop drown lists for the names you are seeking.

Contacting a police officer/police staff

In regards to contact details for I can advise that the MPS website has a 'Contact Us' facility if people wish to contact a specific officer or member of police staff.