Percentage of documents put on disclosure log

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.024049

I note you seek access to the following information:

1 - roughly what percentage of documents released by the Met in 2019, 2020, and 2021 have been uploaded onto the disclosure log?

2 - assuming that this is not 100%, on what basis is a decision made as to which documents are uploaded to the disclosure log and which are not?

3 - please provide me with the database that underwrites/powers the Met publication search portal (available here: https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items). This should be in excel or .csv format. The fields I am most interested in are:
• Document type
• Date
• Title
• Description
• Html link to document

4 - Please provide me with a summary only of all FOI requests responded to by the Met during the year 2021. This should include the following fields and should be in excel or .csv format:
• Date of request
• FOI reference number
• Summary of request (redacted to remove any personal information)
• Outcome (e.g. released in full, partial release, advice and assistance, refused, information not held)
• Date of your response

On the 12 May 2022 the MPS sought clarification from you in regards to Question 3 as follows:

The team running the enquiry have advised that they are unable to extract the URLs from the database, and that only the FOI page links will work.

The team have advised that they do not have a tool ready to export search results, so have attempted to recreate the same as the search, by querying the database directly.

The team advise that as they expect all valid FOI documents and pages to be in the correct location they expect that additional results in the spreadsheet may be either, orphaned old content, or test content located elsewhere.

The team have assumed that the date requested is the custom CMS publish date field, as this is what is displayed in the search results. This is editor entered, and is not necessarily the same as the standard system date fields shown in the spreadsheet.

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) and 40(3A) (a) - Personal information

Reason for decision

Before I explain the decisions that I have made in relation to your request, I thought that it would be helpful to 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 respect of a request must, if permitted, state under Section 1(a) of the Act, whether it holds the requested information and, if held, then communicate that information to the applicant under Section 1(b) of the Act.

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 unsuitable 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.

Section 40(2)&(3) - Personal Information - I consider that Section 40(2) and 40(3A)(a) is applicable in this case, as disclosure at this level of detail, as would be contained with the requested information, 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 UK GDPR. Article 6 sets out the six lawful bases for processing 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 as would be contained within 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 UK GDPR would be met.

Disclosure

Q1 - roughly what percentage of documents released by the Met in 2019, 2020, and 2021 have been uploaded onto the disclosure log?

2019 = 32%
2020 = 41%
2021 = 33%

Further details can be found by way of the following link and by selecting ‘Freedom of Information requests Dashboard’: MPS - Stats & Data

Q2 - assuming that this is not 100%, on what basis is a decision made as to which documents are uploaded to the disclosure log and which are not?

Publication schemes are established under section 19 FOIA. Their purpose is to complement the right of access to information under the FOIA by proactively making available information that is, or is likely to be, of interest to the public.

Following a request, once information has been provided to an applicant, for the purposes of the FOIA legislation it is then deemed to be in the public domain. As such, it is appropriate to consider whether it would be beneficial for it to be published on the Publication Scheme.

It is not practical to routinely publish every piece of information that is provided. However, if it is likely the requested information could be asked for again, or if it deemed to be of high public interest, the document should be submitted to the scheme for publication.

For question 3 - please see attached spreadsheet ‘FOI export’, which is presented in the form outlined above - Personal information has been removed.

For question 4 – please see attached spreadsheet ‘FOI Disclosure Summary’.
The summary of request is recorded in the ‘Request Summary’ field on Cyc-Freedom - Personal information has been removed.