Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs) from September 2021 to January 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.027809

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. Please could you provide me with the total number of issued Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs) broken down by month and year? Please further break the monthly figures down by age, gender and ethnicity. If possible, I would like the age, gender and ethnicity for each individual rather than as a monthly whole. The data would therefore look like November 2022, five KCPOs issued to: Asian male 18, Black male 19, White male 19, Arabic female 20, White female 21.

2. Please also provide me with the criteria attached to each KCPO. Ideally, I'd like to know the criteria for each order e.g. "excluded from Tower Hamlets for one year" or, if you need to make redactions, "excluded from redacted London borough for one year". I would prefer the criteria to be attached to each individual's age, gender and ethnicity breakdown e.g. White male 19, excluded from Tower Hamlets for one year. If that is not possible, please provide the criteria for each month (or other relevant time period, which you must justify) but not attached to any individual. If you can't detail the criteria attaching to each issued KCPO, please explain why and instead provide the criteria as relevant categories e.g. 10 positive requirements, 5 curfews etc.

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)(3A)(a) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

Some of the information you have requested, if disclosed, would cause identification issues due to the specifics in relation to what the conditions granted are for every KCPO issued.

Section 40(2)&(3A)(a) - 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.

Having considered your request and given regard to the legitimate interest test, I have found that:

a. The disclosure of the conditions granted, redacted or non-redacted, contains information whereby the victim(s), witness(s) and suspect(s) would be able to be identified. The disclosure of this personal data would satisfy a legitimate interest, being to provide factual information about the recorded offences.

b. The disclosure of this information is necessary to meet the legitimate interest identified at point a above.

c. The public release of the personal data held would disclose information about an identifiable person. The release of this information by the police would be unexpected and potentially distressing to this person. In this regard, I believe that the disclosure of this personal data would be likely to cause unwarranted harm to the data subject(s) of this request.

Personal Criminal Offence Data - The requested conditions granted contain specific details about restrictions on individuals from which living persons can be identified. Having considered the legitimate interest test in respect of this personal data, I have found that:

a. The Information Commissioner (the ombudsman for the Act) guidance on the release of personal criminal offence data under the Act states:

‘Due to its sensitivity, the conditions for processing criminal offence data are very restrictive and generally concern specific, stated purposes. Consequently, only two are relevant to allow you to lawfully disclose under FOIA or the EIR. They are similar to those identified above for special category data. These are:

• consent from the data subject; or
• the processing relates to personal data which has clearly been made public by the individual concerned.

If a relevant condition cannot be met, you must not disclose the information as disclosure would be unlawful and therefore in contravention of principle (a).’

The conditions required to release personal criminal offence data are not present in this case. The release of the requested personal data does not accordingly satisfy a legitimate interest and cannot be disclosed under the Act.

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.

Disclosure

Please find attached the data in relation to your request, as mentioned above, the conditions granted have been redacted.