Section 163 Road Traffic Act stops by recording the ethnic background of stopped drivers
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026492
I note you seek access to the following information:
At a Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime public review meeting in Brixton on 16 June the results of a pilot conducted by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Deputy Commissioner’s Delivery Group and Roads and Transport Policing Command were presented. This pilot was run to investigate disproportionality in section 163 Road Traffic Act stops by recording the ethnic background of stopped drivers. A report was subsequently made available by the MPS which provided a similar summary of the pilot to that presented at the public review meeting. This report contains cursory information that omits detailed explanation of the methodology and analysis. This means that it is difficult for the reader to fully understand what was done in the pilot and how the data were analysed. For example, referring specifically to Black and Asian drivers, the authors suggest that there was no evidence to indicate disproportionality in the use of section 163 (point 6 on page 2 of the report), but based on the information available in the report the reader can only deduce that this conclusion was derived solely from a subjective comparison of percentages and not from an appropriate statistical test.
Freedom of Information Request
In light of the above, please provide the following information:
1. A more detailed report that contains all the essential information to explain what was done and how conclusions were made. At a minimum, this should include:
- Full details of the analyses conducted, including what statistical techniques were used and all the statistical outputs of these analyses.
- The raw frequency data for the “reason for stop” (point 9) and “outcome” (point 11) tables, or at least the total frequency for each ethnicity (i.e., for each row), so that the reader can understand what numbers the percentages correspond to.
- Explanation of the different reasons for stops. For example, what characterises an “ANPR – Other” stop, and how does this differ from an “ANPRI – PNC Action Report”?
2. The data: Please make available all underlying data collected as part of this pilot. This will enable others to cross-check and validate the inferences and conclusions made by the MPS.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information.
Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
The MPS considers there would be no harm under the FOI Act in providing you with the full submission paper about the Section 163 Road Traffic Act ethnicity recording pilot.
The following provides some background to this updated FOI response.
In November 2020, the Mayor’s Action Plan on Accountability and Trust in Policing asked the Metropolitan Police to run a pilot to record the ethnic background of drivers stopped by police under s163 Road Traffic Act.
The Metropolitan Police ran a six month pilot in 2021 recording 7,556 stops.
A submission on the findings of the 2021 pilot and options for next steps was submitted to the former Deputy Commissioner’s Delivery Group in late 2021. That submission is the paper accompanying this FOI response.
In May 2022, the National Police Chief’s Council and College of Policing Race Action Plan called for all forces to record the ethnicity of those involved in traffic stops.
The Metropolitan Police is now planning an additional pilot that will take into account learning from other forces.
Disclosure:
Section 1 of FOIA states:
1.—(1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled— (a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and (b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.
Having reviewed your request for information, the review finds you were not provided with a response for all aspects of your request nor provided with a reason for refusal of some of the requested information.
You asked for the following:
Explanation of the different reasons for stops. For example, what characterises an “ANPR – Other” stop, and how does this differ from an “ANPRI – PNC Action Report
Please find attached, the full submission paper concerning the Section 163 Road Traffic Act ethnicity recording pilot.
Kindly note that some names of officers have been redacted by virtue of Section 40(2) (3A) (a) of the Act – Personal Information.
Additionally, the MPS considers that the following FOIA exemptions are applicable with regards to the remainder of the requested information:
Section 40 (2) (3A) (a) – Personal Information
Section 31 (1) (a) (b) – Law Enforcement
You also asked for the following information:
The raw frequency data for the “reason for stop” (point 9) and “outcome” (point 11) tables, or at least the total frequency for each ethnicity (i.e., for each row), so that the reader can understand what numbers the percentages correspond to.
- Explanation of the different reasons for stops. For example, what characterises an “ANPR – Other” stop, and how does this differ from an “ANPRI – PNC Action Report”?
2. The data: Please make available all underlying data collected as part of this pilot. This will enable others to cross-check and validate the inferences and conclusions made by the MPS.
The MPS has provided you with some information and there is information in the public domain relevant to your request, the MPS considers that the additional information is not suitable for disclosure by virtue of the Section 40 of the Act – Personal Information.