MPS policies on Public Sector Equality Duty

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.025712

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. Please can you provide me with any guidance, policies or similar relating to how the Metropolitan Police ensures compliance with its Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) under s149 of the Equality Act 2010?

2. Specifically in regards to police operations impacting the public, does the Metropolitan Police have a policy as to what must be done to ensure operations comply with the PSED? If yes, please detail.

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

The Section 40 Exemption has been applied because an email contact has been removed From the MPS EIA Policy. This is because a request under the Freedom of Information Act is not a private transaction. Both the request itself and any information disclosed are considered suitable for open publication; it is published on the MPS website and is available to anyone in the world and not just to one individual.

The release and publication of direct professional email addresses would provide persons intent on disrupting the work of the MPS with information that would assist them to do so. In this regard, a person with this intent would be likely to use this information to make inappropriate contact with members of staff or send them vast amounts of unsolicited correspondence. This would impede upon the resources of the MPS and cause disruption to the natural flow of work.

Section 40(2)&(3) - Personal Information - provides that any information to which a request for information relates, is exempt information if the first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) is satisfied. The first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) states that personal information is exempt if its disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles. If the disclosure of the requested personal data would not contravene the data protection principles, the disclosure must also not contravene Sections 3A(b) and 3B of the Act.

There are six principles that are set out in Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that dictate when the processing of personal data is lawful. The first principle requires that any processing of personal data must be lawful, fair and transparent. Under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:
a. There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
b. The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
c. The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.

The provision to refuse access to information under Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3A)(a) of the Act is both absolute and class based. When this exemption is claimed, it is accepted that harm would result from disclosure. There is accordingly no requirement to demonstrate what that harm may be in refusing access to information.

Whilst not questioning the motives of any applicant, we believe that releasing professional email addresses into the public domain would cause those with intent to use those details to disrupt the work of the MPS.

The email address that has been removed from the MPS EIA Policy is denoted by a black highlight xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Disclosure

In response to Questions, please find attached the following:

MPS EIA Policy MPS Equality impact assessment policy
MPS EIA Template