Republic protestors arrested on 6 May 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.030845

I note you seek access to the following information:

On 6 May 2023, videos emerged on socials media of protestors from the organisation Republic being arrested.

A serving officer in the Met Police is seen saying “they’re being arrested, end of.”

I would specifically like to know:
1) under what grounds were those individuals being arrested
2) the officer being interviewed, had he received any conflict de-escalation training?
3) Please let me know of the Bronze Commanders on duty that day, if they provided the briefing, and in what format it took.

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 21 - Information reasonably accessible by other means
Section 40(2)(3)(4) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

Section 40(2)(3)(4) – Personal Information - 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.

Section 21 - Information reasonably accessible by other means - The information requested has been identified as being accessible via other means as it is already published. Where information is already in the public domain we are not required to re-publish the data; instead public authorities are required to direct you to the information, which we have done in this instance.

Q1 - under what grounds were those individuals being arrested.
The information is available via the MPS website.
Please see the link ‘this statement’ below, 5 paragraph from the end.
And ‘this press release’ 3 paragraph from the end.

The MPS released information regarding the Coronation operation this statement by Sir Mark Rowley and in respect of arrests, this press release.

S40 – Has been utilised in Q2 - the officer being interviewed, had he received any conflict de-escalation training? - The officer’s training record.

Disclosure

Q3 - Please let me know of the Bronze Commanders on duty that day, if they provided the briefing, and in what format it took.

We have obtained the briefing methods of 49 Bronze commanders:
36 Face to Face briefings
9 by a mixture of Microsoft Teams and Face to Face
2 by Microsoft Teams only
1 briefed their Sub-Bronzes who in turn briefed their officers
1 by email