Current & former MPS officers convictions from June 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.028770

I note you seek access to the following information:

Since 9 June 2021,

- The number of Metropolitan Police officers who have been convicted of criminal offences, listed by name and rank at the time of conviction.

- The number of Metropolitan Police officers who have been jailed as a result of their convictions, listed by name, rank at the time of conviction and sentence.

- The number of former Metropolitan Police officers who have been convicted of criminal offences, listed by name, rank at the time of leaving the force and date and reason for leaving the force (ie. dismissal, resignation, retirement).

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

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. This is because, under Freedom of Information, any information disclosed is released into the wider public domain, and is therefore effectively accessible to the world and not just to one individual.

In most cases, Personal Data is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, as I will explain below.

Disclosure of personal data would be likely to cause unwarranted harm to the data subjects in this request.

Our searches provided a direct copy of the information stored on our Centurion system (MPS complaints and misconduct system). Your request asks for names of officers convicted of criminal offences. This would be unwarranted as they would reasonably expect information relating to convictions to be held in confidence and not be disclosed for a non-law enforcement purpose.

The request constitutes criminal offence data and special category data.

Reasonable expectations - Police Officers would have an expectation that information about convictions made against them, including whether or not any complaints have been made, would not be disclosed, even without any specific notification of this. The information you request is classed as sensitive personal data.

In addition, although the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to a deceased individual, were we to disclose any information publicly could reveal personal information about living individuals, for example other family members, thereby breaching the right to privacy afforded to persons under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and attracting the exemption afforded by Section 40 of the Act.

Section 40(2)&(3A)(a) - Personal Information - provides that any information to which a request for information relates, is exempt information if the first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) is satisfied. The first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) states that personal information is exempt if its disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles.

There are six principles that are set out in Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that dictate when the processing of personal data is lawful. The first principle requires that any processing of personal data must be lawful, fair and transparent. Under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:

a. There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
b. The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
c. The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.

Personal Criminal Offence Data - Having considered the legitimate interest test in respect of this personal data, I have found that:

a. The Information Commissioner (the ombudsman for the Act) guidance on the release of personal criminal offence data under the Act states:

‘Due to its sensitivity, the conditions for processing criminal offence data are very restrictive and generally concern specific, stated purposes. Consequently, only two are relevant to allow you to lawfully disclose under FOIA or the EIR. They are similar to those identified above for special category data. These are:

• consent from the data subject; or
• the processing relates to personal data which has clearly been made public by the individual concerned.

If a relevant condition cannot be met, you must not disclose the information as disclosure would be unlawful and therefore in contravention of principle (a).’

The conditions required to release personal criminal offence data are not present in this case. The release of the requested personal data does not accordingly satisfy a legitimate interest and cannot be disclosed under the Act.

The provision to refuse access to information under Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3A)(a) of the Act is both absolute and class based. When this exemption is claimed, it is accepted that harm would result from disclosure. There is accordingly no requirement to demonstrate what that harm may be in refusing access to information.

Disclosure

Please see attached spreadsheet for answer to your request in redacted format, that is, I have removed the names of officers.

DUTY TO ADVISE AND ASSIST
I have provided you with the following links to some named Met Police Officers convictions:

CPS - MPS Police Officer Francois Olwage jailed child sex offences

CPS - Police Officer found guilty misconduct public office

MPS - Former-PC Jaffer and PC Lewis notice of outcome

Government Site - Review of police dismissals launched

Police Conduct - Investigation report offensive "whatsapp" messages officers linked to Wayne Couzens

IOPC - Met officer dismissed for punching 15-year-old boy