Weapons seized at school premises in London recorded by the MPS from 2017 to 2021
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023021
I note you seek access to the following information:
Could you please provide a response to each question for the calendar years (inclusive January – December) 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021?
1 - How many weapons were seized in London schools and recorded by the Metropolitan Police?
2 - Where possible, what was the age of the offender the weapon was taken from/found with?
3 - The borough where each incident was recorded?
Please provide the data in the format shown in the link below regarding weapons seized in London schools recorded by the Metropolitan Police. In the Calendar years (inclusive January – December) 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021?
Decision
Having located and considered the relevant information. 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
When a request 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 is cannot comply with all or part of a request, it must cite the appropriate section or exemption of the Act and provide you with a suitable explanation. It is important to note that 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.
I have considered the information:
• The borough where each incident was recorded relating to weapons seized in London schools broken down by months during period of 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2021.
The above requests for information is exempt under Section 40(2)(3) - Personal information of the FOIA.
If the MPS disclosed the information requested at borough level and the information broken down by months, it would be possible for an individual to be identified due to the relatively low number of crime records associated with a borough, as specified within the scope of your request. It would be possible to use the specifics of this data to narrow down individuals. To disclose information which could cause harm to individuals cannot be allowed.
The need to prevent this has invoked a section 40 exemption being applied to the request, as any information that identifies an individual is 'personal information', as defined under the Data Protection Act 1998
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information - The Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for Personal Data and this is known as the section 40 exemption.
The information sought under your Freedom of Information request includes the following which we consider to be Personal Data:
• The borough where each incident was recorded relating to weapons seized in London schools, broken down by months during period of 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2021.
It would be possible for an individual to be identified, if the MPS disclosed the information requested at borough level and also broken down by months. To disclose information which could cause harm to individuals cannot be allowed.
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
I have disclosed the following information:
1. Number of Weapon Offences in School Premises by Year.
2. Number of People Proceeded Against (PPA) for Weapon Offences in School Premises, by Year and Age.
During the period of 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2021.
IMPORTANT:
• Please ensure that the note section within the spreadsheet is read in conjunction with the data in this report to ensure that it is interpreted correctly.