Misconduct stats and information

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.029905

I note you seek access to the following information:

1) Number of officers by rank (PC - Commissioner) breakdown currently being investigated for misconduct.
1)(i) Number of officers by rank (PC - Commissioner) breakdown currently being investigated for gross misconduct.
1(ii) Number of officers by rank (PC - Commissioner) breakdown currently being dealt with through Reg 13 procedures.

2) Breakdown of numbers per rank (PC - Commissioner) under who have been under investigation for misconduct in the last 12 calendar months beginning 18/04/2022.
2)(i) Breakdown of numbers per rank (PC - Commissioner) under investigation for gross misconduct in the last 12 calendar months beginning 18/04/2022.
2(ii) Number of officers by rank (PC - Commissioner) breakdown currently being dealt with through Reg 13 procedures.

3) Breakdown of reasons/nature/category of misconduct.
3)(i) Breakdown of reasons/nature/category of gross misconduct.

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) - Personal Information

Reason for decision

The requested records contain personal data that I consider to be exempt under the Act. This relates to the parts of your request detailed below which asks for -

Number of officers by rank (PC - Commissioner)

Our data returned low numbers for the rank Inspector and above. The public release of the detail of each allegation of police officers misconduct alongside a breakdown of each rank would likely to lead to identification. Identification would occur as those internal/external to the MPS that have some awareness of each allegation, would be able to identify each employee and/or the personal details of the accuser(s).

S40 are absolute exemptions 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 40(2)(a)(b)(3(a)(i)(ii)(b) - 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 you have requested is considered by the MPS to be personal to the officers concerned. 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.

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 find attached spreadsheet. To reduce the harm with disclosure, we have provided you with data for the ranks of Constable, Sergeant, Inspector and above grouped.

With regards to Q1(ii) and Q2(ii) -

Q1 - Number of officers by rank (PC - Commissioner) breakdown currently being investigated for misconduct.
Q1(ii) - Number of officers by rank (PC - Commissioner) breakdown currently being dealt with through Reg 13 procedures.

We can confirm that there are 179 open Reg 13 cases. They are all constables.

Q2 - Breakdown of numbers per rank (PC - Commissioner) under who have been under investigation for misconduct in the last 12 calendar months beginning 18/04/2022.
Q2(ii) - Number of officers by rank (PC - Commissioner) breakdown currently being dealt with through Reg 13 procedures.

No Information Held.