Data on murder victims aged under 18 in London from May 2018 to April 2023
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.030614
I note you seek access to the following information:
I would like to request the names of all of the under 18's who have been victims of murder in London the last five years.
Please could you supply the following information about each victim.
1. The name of the victim
2. Their age at death
3. The name of the London borough they were resident in.
I understand that the Met routinely publishes into the public domain the name/age of murder victims at the time of their death.
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 30(1)(a)(i) – Investigations and Proceedings conducted by Public Authorities
Section 38(1)(a) – Health & Safety
Section 40(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(i)(ii)(b) - Personal information
Reason for decision
The information requested regarding victims of crime are held by the MPS for the purpose of recording and investigating criminal offences. Information that has been obtained by the MPS for this purpose, is retained upon the understanding that its use will be limited to the criminal investigation and/or any related proceedings.
The MPS will, during the course of an investigation, release details about an offence, including the name of the victim, to progress the investigation. However, these are operational decisions that are made in the interests of the investigation and it would be inappropriate to release the names of victims of homicide, given that this information was obtained and is held for the purpose of a criminal investigation, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Furthermore, the public release of the specific information requested of homicide victims outside of a criminal investigation would be insensitive, and would risk distress to the family members and friends of the deceased and could also result in a loss of confidence in the MPS to protect the well-being of the families and friends of homicide victims. Furthermore, although the deceased are not protected under the Data Protection Act, in matters such as this, we need to consider how the information we have recorded would relate to living individuals.
The information you are seeking is third party personal data (of the families of the victims), and disclosure would identify these living individuals and would release sensitive personal information in relation to those individuals into the public domain.
For the above reasons Section 30(1)(a)(i) of the Act, which provides an exemption for information prejudicial to investigations and proceedings, Section 38(1)(a), which provides an exemption for information which would, or would be likely to, endanger the physical or mental health of any individual, and Section 40(2)(3) of the Act, which provides an exemption for personal information, have all been applied to refuse disclosure in this case.
Section 30(1)(a)(i) – Investigations and proceedings conducted by the public authority & Section 38(1)(a) – Health & Safety - The effect on the families of the deceased cannot be underestimated. When a member of the public dies, the family of the deceased are likely to be distressed for a considerable period of time. When that death is not attributable to natural causes, the distress caused can be greater and on the rare occasion that the cause of death is homicide, that distress can be even more severe. In homicide cases, it is common that close family members never get over the loss of their loved one. This sense of loss can extend to the wider family and to close friends.
In homicide investigations, the MPS has an ongoing duty of care to the families of the deceased. The public release of the names, ages and the London Borough of homicide victims resided outside of a criminal investigation could lead to the families of the deceased being subjected to unsolicited approaches by the media. These family members may wish to retain their anonymity. It is also possible that the release of this information could lead to media intrusion, which could force family members and friends to re-live their loss in the public eye. Ultimately, the public release of the names of victims of homicide when no permission has been sought, would be insensitive and unfair, which would risk distress to the family members and friends of the deceased. This could also result in a loss of confidence in the MPS to protect the well-being of the families and friends of homicide victims.
The names, ages and the Borough of where homicide victims resided are held by the MPS for the purpose of recording and investigating criminal offences. Information that has been obtained by the MPS for this purpose, is retained upon the understanding that its use will be limited to the criminal investigation and/or any related proceedings.
The MPS will, during the course of an investigation, release details about an offence, including some of the victim details, to progress the investigation. These are operational decisions that are made in the interests of the investigation. It would be inappropriate to release the names of victims of homicide in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, given that this information was obtained and is held for the purpose of a criminal investigation.
As has been outlined in the evidence of harm in relation to Section 38 of the Act, the effect on the families of the deceased, should information in relation to their loved ones be released in response to a FOIA request, cannot be underestimated. Any disclosure of information in relation to deceased family members, particularly where those loved ones were the victims of homicide, would not be in the public interest.
Having identified and considered the factors relevant to the public interest, I have carefully examined the importance of transparency with the general public. The MPS is committed to transparency with the general public and recognises that greater transparency is likely to improve public confidence in the MPS. For this reason, I have attached particular weight to this public interest factor.
In assessing your request, I have also evaluated the harm that the release of the requested information would cause. When a member of the public is murdered, the sense of loss and distress caused to the family cannot be overstated. In processing any information connected to each homicide investigation, the MPS has a duty of care to the family and must not take any action that would unnecessarily cause the family of the deceased any further distress. Having considered your request, I have found that the public release of the homicide victims names, ages and the London Borough they resided, outside of a criminal investigation, could lead to the families and friends of the deceased being subjected to unsolicited approaches by the media.
The public release of this information could also lead to family members and friends having to re-live their loss in the public eye. In some of the cases that you are seeking information for, this will be a number of years since the murders of their loved ones, and their relatives and friends would not expect the information to be published again in response to a FOIA request and when permission has not been sought by them, such disclosure would be unfair and unexpected. In the case of more recent homicides releasing information about their loved one in conjunction with the details of other victims of homicide, would be extremely distressing and there would be no official requirement for this additional disclosure when information in relation to those homicides are likely to be already in the public domain.
Having carefully considered your request, I have found that the release of information within the scope of your request could cause distress to the families of the deceased and/or could prejudice any unsolved investigation. These are fundamentally predominantly convincing reasons to refuse your request. Additionally, the public interest is served through the publication of information on the MPS website. On balance, I believe that these public interest factors support refusing your request.
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information - 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.
The information sought under your Freedom of Information request includes the following which we consider to be Personal Data
Disclosure of the victims of homicide names, ages and the London Borough they resided. This would undoubtedly risk identifying those victims and also identify living family members, and possibly friends, of the deceased individual which would release personal information in relation to those individuals into the public domain.
Where a 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 3A, 3B and 4A of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (as amended by Section 58 of the Data Protection Act 2018).
The first condition ensures that the exemption would apply in circumstances where the disclosure of the information would breach any of the Data Protection Act 2018 principles.
There are six Data Protection principles set out in the 2018 Act and these can be found at section 34.
In this instance I have decided that the disclosure of the 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.
Disclosure
Please see the below spreadsheet which shows the - Total of murder victims under 18 from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.
ADVICE & ASSISTANCE:
Information / data pertaining to homicides you may find of interest is in the public domain and can be accessed via the below link:
This link provides access to the External Homicide Dashboard which goes back to 2003. This can be filtered for murder / homicide.