Reported offences at gyms from 2018 to 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.028168

I note you seek access to the following information:

****AMENDED REQUEST ****
Please note, there are five parts to my request.

1. How many sexual assaults against people aged over-18 have been reported which are alleged to have taken place at gyms in your jurisdiction between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2023?
Gyms can include health clubs, leisure centres, fitness centres.

2. How many reports have been made to your force of rape against people aged over-18 which are alleged to have taken place at gyms in your jurisdiction between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2023?
Gyms can include health clubs, leisure centres, fitness centres.

3. How many sexual assaults against people aged under-18 have been reported which are alleged to have taken place at gyms in your jurisdiction between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2023?
Gyms can include health clubs, leisure centres, fitness centres.

4. How many reports have been made to your force of rape against people aged under-18 which are alleged to have taken place at gyms in your jurisdiction between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2023?
Gyms can include health clubs, leisure centres, fitness centres.

5. How many had an outcome of ‘charge/summons’ re points 1 and 2 above?

****PREVIOUS REQUEST****
1. How many sexual assaults against people aged over-18 have been reported which are alleged to have taken place at gyms in your jurisdiction between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2023?

2. How many reports have been made to your force of rape against people aged over-18 which are alleged to have taken place at gyms in your jurisdiction between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2023?

3. How many had an outcome of ‘charge/summons’ re points 1 and 2 above?

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) and (3)(a)(i) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

The exemption Section 40(2)&(3) has been applied because some of the information requested has been withheld due to low numbers which may lead to the identification of individuals, which is considered by the MPS to be personal information.

Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3)(a)(i) - Personal Information - This is an absolute exemption which means that the legislators have identified that harm would be caused by any release. In addition there is no requirement to consider the public interest test.

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 3(a), 3(b) and 4(c) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

In this instance I have decided that the disclosure of 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.

The basis for determining whether such a disclosure would be lawful and fair is outlined under section 35 of the 2018 act which states that the subject of the data must have given his/her consent for disclosure or the processing must be necessary for the performance official of a task carried out by a competent authority. As we do not have consent for the disclosure of personal data and the disclosure is not necessary for any law enforcement purposes it would not be considered lawful processing. Such a disclosure would therefore contravene the first data protection principle.

I have applied the exemption provided under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act to this information as the first condition, defined in subsection 3(A)(a) of Section 40 has been satisfied.

Section 40 Exemption applies to question 2 and 4. This is because the data produced numbers below 10. Therefore the rape data and other sexual offences data have been combined in tables 1 and 2 so as to avoid identification of individuals.

A Freedom of Information Act request is not a private transaction. Both the request itself and any information disclosed are considered suitable for open publication, 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. Any information released under the Act is also published on the MPS website.

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.

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 3(A), 3(B) and 4(A) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Disclosure

Please see the attached spreadsheet below:

Please note that the Section 40 exemption has been applied to the tables titled:

Sexual offences at gyms etc. - victim(s) aged 18+
Sexual offences at gyms etc. - victim(s) aged under 18