Serving officers convicted of offences from 2010 to 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.030064

I note you seek access to the following information:

For each of the last FIVE years, and also for the year 2010, please can I request the following information from your Professional Standards Units under the Freedom of Information Act:

The total number of individuals given a fixed penalty notice for a criminal offence committed when a serving officer with your force and a breakdown into categories of offences.

The total number of individuals convicted of a criminal offence committed at the time they were a serving officer with your force. A breakdown of those offences, e.g. violence, sexual offences, motoring offences.

The total number of the above individuals who received a custodial sentence and the type of offence in each case.

The total number of officers subject to disciplinary proceedings and the total number dismissed.

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

Section 40 - 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.
I have applied this exemption in that the data returned low figures that could identify individuals.

Our data returned low numbers in tables 1-3. The public release of the detail of each allegation of police officers misconduct alongside a breakdown by each year requested could identify individuals, 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).

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 totals for the years requested. That is data for 2010 and 2018 to 2022.

In addition, please visit the following link for the statement from the Commissioner regarding standards the MPS.

Met provides first update on strongest doubling down on standards for 50 years