Complaints received against the Specialist Operations Units from July 2015 to July 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026932

I note you seek access to the following information:

1a. Between July 2015 – July 2022, how many officers working within the Special Operations units of the MET police had received complaints made against them.
- I would like this broken down by nature of complaint, and for each unit.

1b. Of those in question 1, how many complaints were made by members of the public.

2a. Between July 2015 – July 2022, how officers working within the Special Operations units of the MET police underwent ‘formal disciplinary action’
- I would like this broken down by nature of complaint and – if possible – for each unit

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

Section 40(2)(3) - Personal data - Section 40 is both an absolute and class based exemption which means there is no requirement on the MPS to consider whether there is a public interest in disclosure. When this exemption is claimed, it is accepted that harm would result from disclosure. 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 the excel spreadsheet in its entirety would publicly reveal information about individuals 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 some of the units within Specialist Operations consist of very small numbers of personnel. This could mean that an individual within these units could be identified by colleagues. By means of a legitimate interest test I have considered the release of the personal data, and I have found that:

Numbers by unit –
- Disclosing the exact number of officers within the Specialist Operations units that have received complaints against them would provide specific details regarding who is/was the subject of public complaints and conduct matters.

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

- The MPS staff have a legitimate expectation that the MPS would not publicly release and publish their data in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The MPS must consider how we process personal data and without their explicit consent, the sharing of their personal data would be harmful, and cause alarm and distress to the data subjects. I therefore find it justified to withhold the specific units that these officers work within.

Disclosure

These searches successfully located the information relevant to your request. I have attached an excel spreadsheet with the answers to your questions.

Please note I have removed the specific Specialist Operations units from the attached data to ensure that no individual officer can be identified, so as not to contravene their rights under the Data Protection Act.

DATA CAVEATS - Please note that the figures provided count the number of allegations made and not the number of officers. This means that if an allegation is made against more than one officer it will be counted against each officer involved unless explicitly stated.

Conduct Matter - A Conduct Matter arises in any circumstances where there has not been a public complaint but the circumstances indicate that an officer or member of police staff may have either committed a criminal offence or behaved in a way that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings.

Public Complaint - Public Complaints refer to allegations received externally from individuals outside of the organisation.