Ill treatment or willful neglect offences involving victims aged 65 to 75+ from April 2020 to March 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026135

I note you seek access to the following information:

In relation to the years - April 2020-March 2021 and April 2021-March 2022. I require the following information:

The number of ill treatment or willful neglect offences recorded by Metropolitan Police Service involving victims in age categories 65-74 and 75+

A breakdown of the gender of the victims identified above.

A breakdown of the relationship of victim to principal suspect for each victim identified above.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request.

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)(a)(b)(3A)(i)) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

The MPS will be unable to answer question 3:

Q3 - A breakdown of the relationship of victim to principal suspect for each victim identified above.

Before I explain the reasons for the decisions I have made in relation to your request, I thought that it would be helpful if I outline the parameters set out by 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 receipt of a request must, if permitted, confirm if the requested information is held by that public authority and, if so, then communicate that information to the applicant.

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 not suitable 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.

The details in column B of the attached spreadsheet regarding the ‘Known Relationship’ because of the low count could cause an individual to be identified and is therefore exempted in this case.
Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 confirms that information which relates to an identified or identifiable living individual is Personal Data.

The Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for Personal Data and this is known as the section 40 exemption.
Some of the information sought under your Freedom of Information request includes the following which we consider to be Personal Data

• Relationship details of victims to the principal suspect, if disclosed, would identify an individual.

Where the request is seeking access to third party personal data the section 40(2) exemption may be engaged.

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 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 see the below spreadsheet which answers questions 1 and 2 of your request.

Q1 - The number of ill treatment or willful neglect offences recorded by Metropolitan Police Service involving victims in age categories 65-74 and 75+
Q2 - A breakdown of the gender of the victims identified above.

Please Note:
The notes page should be read in conjunction with the data