New PageList of all gross misconduct hearings held in private 2020 - 2021
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026803
I note you seek access to the following information:
List of all gross misconduct hearings for Met officers which were held in private (closed to the public or without notice given) in the calendar year 2020-21.
On that list please provide the rank and gender of the officer, BCU (or other unit) served in, a summary of the allegation (e.g. including the particulars, as would have been provided on the public notice), the finding, the outcome or sanction, the date the sanction was reached.
Please also provide the total number of gross misconduct cases dealt with in that year and the total that were not heard in public.
Follow this up with FOI of particulars or reason notice was not public.
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
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information
I note that you are seeking information in relation to all gross misconduct hearings for MPS officers that were held in private in the calendar year 2020-21, and the number of gross misconduct hearings that were held for that calendar year in total. You have then further asked for the information relating to hearings held in private to be broken down by rank, gender, BCU or department, the finding and outcome of the hearing and the date that was reached, a summary of the allegation in each case, and to follow this up with reasons that a notice was not public.
Please be advised that this is a very granular breakdown and if we were to disclose the information broken down in this manner it would identify specific cases and individuals concerned, and release sensitive personal information in relation to the officers concerned, and any other person captured by each specific case, into the public domain. Any such disclosure of personal information would be in breach of the rights provided by the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations. This would be neither fair or lawful as individuals concerned would not expect information that would identify them to be released at this time in response to a FOIA request. I have therefore made the decision to disclose some of the information you are seeking but any information that would identify specific cases and individuals concerned has been refused and Section 40(2)(3) of the Act, which provides an exemption for personal information has been applied.
The following information has not been disclosed: the summary of each allegation, breakdown by gender, breakdown by specific rank, the date the sanction was reached, and the particulars or reason notice was not public.
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) - 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 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 requested 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 find attached information relevant to your request. Please ensure that the data provided is read in conjunction with the notes page of the attached spreadsheet to ensure correct interpretation of the data provided.
The following data has been provided:
• A breakdown of public and private hearings for 2020/21.
• A breakdown by rank for a) constables, and b) sergeants and above.
• A breakdown of cases by BCU/Non BCU.
• Finding outcomes
• Sanctions for proven outcomes
With further reference to your final question, where you have asked us to “Follow this up with FOI of particulars or reason notice was not public”. Whilst we are unable to disclose the reasons why a specific hearing was not public, as this information would be personal to the case, it should be noted that the national lockdown between March 2020 and Feb 2022 led to an increase of hearings being held in private.