Victims of Islamophobic hate crimes across the MPS area from April 2020 to April 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.21.022178

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. The total number of Islamophobic hate crimes which were recorded between April 2020 – April 2021, broken down by months.

2. Of the recorded religiously motivated hate crime offences between April 2020 – April 2021 wherein the victims are Muslims, please provide a breakdown of the ethnicity of the victims.

3. Of the recorded racially motivated hate crime offences between April 2020 – April 2021, please provide a breakdown of:

a. the ethnicity of victims (please provide inter-category disaggregation where known, e.g. Bangladeshi, Pakistani etc instead of “South Asian”)

b. the religion of the victims.

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)&(4) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

Before I explain the reasons for the decisions I have made in relation to your request, I thought that it would be helpful if I outline the parameters set out by 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 receipt of a request must, if permitted, confirm if the requested information is held by that public authority and, if so, then communicate that information to the applicant.

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 not suitable 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.

Details of an investigation could cause an individual to be identified and is therefore exempted in this case. Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 confirms that information which relates to an identified or identifiable living individual is Personal Data.

The Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for Personal Data and this is known as the section 40 exemption.

Some of the information sought under your Freedom of Information request includes the following which we consider to be Personal Data

• Low numbers of Islamaphobic Hate Crime data flagged Victims by Ethnic Appearance broken down by month. Victim Self Classified Ethnicity, that could, if disclosed entirely would identify an individual. Islamaphobic Hate Crime data flagged Victims by Victim Religion that could, if disclosed entirely would identify an individual.

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

The harm of disclosure is reduced by redacting Table 1.

Table 1 - Count of Islamaphobic Hate Crime flagged Victims by Ethnic Appearance Recorded Date between 01/04/2020 and 30/04/2021 (13 months)

• A breakdown by month has been redacted as the numbers are low, individuals could be identified. The totals for each month remain.

The harm of disclosure is reduced by redacting Table 2.

Table 2 - Count of Islamaphobic Hate Crime flagged Victims by Self Defined Ethnicity Recorded Date between 01/04/2020 and 30/04/2021 (13 months).

The following Victim Self Classified Ethnicity has been redacted, as the numbers are low, individuals could be identified within the data.

• Black - Any other Black background
• Black - Caribbean
• Mixed - Any other Mixed background
• Mixed - White & Asian
• Mixed - White and Black African
• Mixed - White and Black Caribbean
• White - Any other White background
• White - British

The harm of disclosure is reduced by redacting table 3.

Table 3 - Count of Islamaphobic Hate Crime flagged Victims by Victim Religion Recorded Date between 01/04/2020 and 30/04/2021 (13 months)

Data for the following Victims religion has been redacted, as numbers are low people could be identified.

• AGNOSTIC
• ATHEIST
• HINDU
• JEWISH
• NO RELIGION
• OTHER
• ROMAN CATHOLIC
• SIKH

Please see the attached spreadsheet, pursuant to your request for information.