Senior Management Structure of the Directorate of Professional Standards

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026340

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. The Senior Management Structure of the Directorate of Professional Standards

2. The names of the officers that constitute “the office of T/Ass Commissioner Amanda Pearson

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 data

Reason for decision

These searches successfully located the information relevant to your request. I have disclosed the located information to you, under the section titled Information Disclosed. Please note, the names of the officers that form the T/Assistant Commissioner Pearson’s office have been redacted, this data has been withheld.

Section 40(2)(3) - Personal data - Section 40(3A)(a) states that public authorities will not disclose information which constitutes personal data and if the disclosure would contravene any of the Data Protection principles.

To disclose all the requested data would publicly reveal information about MPS staff which would contravene Data Protection principles. The Data Protection Act 2018 defines personal data as any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual. There are six data protection principles set out in section 34 of the DPA 2018 and under Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The first principle requires personal data to be processed in a ‘lawful and fair’ manner. The basis for determining what constitutes lawful and fair is outlined under section 35 of the DPA. Under section 35(2) it states:

• the data subject has given consent to the processing for that purpose, or
• the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for that purpose by a competent authority.

It is important to note that we do not have the consent of the data subjects and the release of the data will not be used for a law enforcement process.

Under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:

• There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
• The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
• The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.

Having considered your request, I have found that the names of MPS staff is personal data. By means of a legitimate interest test I have considered the release of this personal data, and I have found that:

The names of Staff members

• Disclosing the requested information would provide the public with the names of the individuals working within T/Assistant Commissioner Pearson’s office. The public may have a general interest in finding out who works in different departments. This being the case, I have chosen to disclose the number of positions within the office and the rank of each member of staff.

• The legitimate interest in transparency would be further satisfied through the release of this information.

• Whilst senior management would expect to be named in relation to FOIA request, the police officers and staff who are listed in relation to question 2 hold the rank of Chief Inspector or band D and below. Officers and staff of that rank would not therefore, reasonably expect their names to be published in response to a FOIA request. In this regard, the public release of their personal data would be unexpected, unfair and distressing to the data subject(s). The MPS must always consider how we process personal data, whether that is in relation to the public or that of our employees and so without their explicit consent, the sharing of their personal data would cause unwarranted harm. I therefore find it justified to withhold the names ‘of the officers that constitute “the office of T/Ass Commissioner Amanda Pearson’.

Disclosure

Q1 -The Senior Management Structure of the Directorate of Professional Standards

Please see the attached document titled DPS Command Structure for the answer to this question.

Q2 - The names of the officers that constitute “the office of T/Ass Commissioner Amanda Pearson

Staff officers:
***********  Detective Chief Inspector
***********  Chief Inspector
***********  Sergeant

Personal assistant:
********** Band D