Data for hate crime from 2018 to 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026209

I note you seek access to the following information:

Dear Metropolitan Police Service (MPS),

Please provide the following information in respect of every full year from 1 January 2018 onwards.

1. The total number of hate crimes recorded by the Constabulary, broken down by individual ‘hate’ characteristics (e.g. Race, disability etc.)

2. With respect to crimes that were so recorded due to the hate element being related to ‘gender identity’, ‘gender reassignment’ or ‘transphobia’(or whichever similar term the Force may use) please provide a detailed breakdown of the specific crimes involved e.g. rape, murder, assault, harassment etc.)

3. The total number of non-crime hate incidents recorded, similarly broken down as per question 1.

4. With respect to non-crime hate incidents that were so recorded due to the hate element being related to ‘gender identity’, ‘gender reassignment’ or ‘transphobia’(or whichever similar term the Force may use) please provide a detailed breakdown of the specific type of incident involved.

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 -

Table 3: Transgender Hate crime by crime type recorded between 2018 and 2021 and Table 5: Non Crime Hate Crime incidents where there is a hate crime flag recorded between 2018 and 2021.

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

Please find attached information that has been assessed as suitable for disclosure.