Modus operandi summary for " keeping a brothel" from December 2018 to February 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.028694

I note you seek access to the following information:

Please could I request the incident summary / current summary / modus operandi summary (or whatever your force calls the equivalent) of the 10 most recent offences of 'keeping a brothel', and the outcome of each. Please redact any identifying personal or identifying information.

By the offence of 'keeping a brothel' I mean to include any of the following offences (and any other similar ones I may have missed):
• Conspire To Manage / Assist In Management Of A Brothel
• Keep / Manage A Brothel Used For Prostitution
• Keep A Brothel
• Manage / Assist In Management Of A Heterosexual Brothel
• Permit Use Of Premises As A Brothel

This was later amended to be the 40 most recent offences.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. However, the summaries of the offences have been provided in a redacted format as some of the information contained within them is exempt from disclosure in accordance with Section 40(2)(3A)(a)(i) and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 40(2)(3A)(a)(i) – Personal Information

In addition, the specific years of each case have not been provided, and the outcomes have been grouped, to again reduce the likelihood of identifying any individuals involved.

Reason for decision

Section 40(2)&(3)(a)(i) – 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. If the disclosure of the requested personal data would not contravene the data protection principles, the disclosure must also not contravene Sections 3A(b) and 3B of the Act.

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.

Having considered your request and given regard to the legitimate interest test, I have found that:

a. The disclosure of the summaries contains information whereby the victim(s), witness(s) and suspect(s) would be able to be identified. The disclosure of this personal data would satisfy a legitimate interest, being to provide factual information about the recorded offences.

b. The disclosure of this information is necessary to meet the legitimate interest identified at point a) above.

c. The public release of the personal data held within these summaries would disclose information about identifiable people. The release of this information by the police would be unexpected and potentially distressing to these individuals. In this regard, I believe that the disclosure of this personal data would be likely to cause unwarranted harm to the data subjects of this request.

Personal Criminal Offence Data - The requested data includes criminal offence information, given the nature of the offence you have requested information about. Having considered the legitimate interest test in respect of this personal data, I have found that:

a. The Information Commissioner’s 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

The 40 most recent cases of ‘keeping a brothel’ spanned between December 2018 and February 2023.

The following offences were included in the search:

024/19 - Keeping a brothel for prostitution

109/06 - Allowing child or young person to be in a brothel

142/14 - Permitting Licensed premises to be used as a brothel

107/01 - Keeping a brothel

107/05 - Keeping a brothel for homosexual practices

107/02 - Letting premises for use as a brothel

107/06 - Letting premises for use as a brothel for homosexual

107/03 - Tenant permitting premises to be used as a brothel

107/07 - Tenant permitting premises to be used as a brothel

The outcomes for these 40 offences were as follows:

Caution – adult – 1
Charged / Summonsed – 9
Evidential difficulties victim based - 1
Invest. complete: no susp id - 6
Outcome Pending - 3
Susp id; V not support; evidential difficulties - 1
Susp id; V supports; evidential difficulties - 18
Transferred to External Agency - 1

Please note, crimes related to 'Keeping a Brothel' are characterised as other accepted crime. This means the Home Office does not require the Police to record these offences so figures may not reflect all encountered offences.

Please find attached the redacted summary of each case.