Weekly domestic abuse/violence data from January 2017 to October 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026771

I note you seek access to the following information:

The DAILY rates of domestic violence in different London areas. Any other data regarding domestic violence rates in London is also useful.

Clarification-
I would like:
The count of Domestic Abuse per day for each London borough. The time frame is preferably 2017-2022, however any time frame in the last 20 years is useful.

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) - Personal Information

Reason for decision

Before I explain the decisions that I have made in relation to your request, I thought that it would be helpful to outline the parameters set out by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (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 respect of a request must, if permitted, state under Section 1(a) of the Act, whether it holds the requested information and, if held, then communicate that information to the applicant under Section 1(b) of the Act.

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 unsuitable 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.

Under Section 40(2) and (3) of the Act, public authorities are able to withhold information where its release would identify any living individual and breach the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). I have claimed this exemption because if we were to disclose some of the information pertaining to the table that details -

Daily Domestic Abuse Offences Statistics, by Day, Month, Year and Borough 2017 - 2022.

This would present a strong risk of identification of individuals because of the low count, which would breach the right to privacy afforded to persons under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The victims of these offences would not reasonably expect this information to be published by the MPS and I have found that as no prior consent has been given to release this personal data any release would accordingly be unfair. In the case of legitimate processing, it is therefore not appropriate to release this information.

Section 40(2)(a)(b)(3A)(i)) - Personal Information - As stated above some of the requested information because of the low count if disclosed would be likely to lead to the identification of living individuals and therefore such information is considered to be Personal Data.

The disclosure of this personal data would breach the first data protection principle, specified within Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which requires that personal data shall be: ‘processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’);’

Processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that at least one of 6 conditions specified under Article 6 of the GDPR are applicable. Article 6, GDPR sets out the six lawful bases, applying to all processing; one of which must be in place in every case of disclosure of personal data under FOIA, in accordance with the First Data Protection Principle.

The disclosure of the personal data contained within the requested information would be unwarranted in the circumstances of this request. This is because the disclosure of this personal data is not necessary to satisfy the legitimate public interest and in relation to personal data, there is no presumption of disclosure. Furthermore, none of the conditions specified within Article 6 of the GDPR would be met. Therefore section 40(2)(3A)(a) is engaged and disclosure cannot be made.

Disclosure

The offences returned low figures that could identify individuals, to avoid harm with disclosure, I have provided you with weekly numbers instead of daily numbers, broken down by borough.

Please find attached information pursuant to your request.