Officers suspended on full pay as of January 2022
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.022598
I note you seek access to the following information:
1. As of 01.01.2022 how many of your force's officers (not specials) were suspended on full pay?
Please provide me with a breakdown showing the number of officers suspended in each rank of your force as of 01.01.2022.
2. Please also provide me with a list showing the date (month/year) that each officer suspended as of 01.01.2022 was first suspended from duty on full pay?
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) – Personal Information
Reason for decision
When a request for information 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 cannot comply with all or part of a request, it must cite the appropriate section or exemption of the Act and provide you with an explanation.
The Section 40(2) Exemption has been utilised because, due to small numbers of the rank of Sergeant/Detective Sergeant and above, providing a breakdown of ranks and month/year of suspension could lead to the identification of individuals.
It is important to note that a Freedom of Information Act request is not a private transaction. Both the request itself and any information disclosed are considered suitable for open publication, 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. Any information released under the Act is also published on the MPS website.
Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3)(a)(i) - Personal Information - 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 3(a), 3(b) and 4(c) 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 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
Please note that, to avoid further delay, we have provided data based on a snapshot of officers currently suspended as at 31/1/2022.
Please find attached Excel Spreadsheet with the information requested.
Please note that, as explained above, it does not include a breakdown of ranks and month/year of suspension because we believe that this could lead to the identification of individuals.