Complaints received within your organisation of rape and sexual assault from January 2018 - November 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.034185

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. I would be grateful if you could provide the total number of complaints received within your organisation of rape, sexual assault or other forms of sexual misconduct made by females against serving male police officers.
c) Where the complainant is female and a member of the public.

2. Please provide figures for the years 2018-2023 inclusive where available, even if the year is incomplete. For each case, please state if possible.
b) The nature of the alleged offence and any context if possible
d) The outcome of each investigation, e.g., charged, suspension, referred to the IPCC, dismissed, resigned, transferred etc.

3. Following the publication of the Baroness Casey review of the Metropolitan Police and the Angiolini Inquiry, please provide responses to the following questions.
a) What policies and procedures have been updated and implemented in your force?
b) Have any changes in the vetting process been implemented in terms of recruiting new officers? If so, what specific changes have been made?

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) & (3a)(a) - Personal Information

Reason for decision

With regards to Q2b –
2. Please provide figures for the years 2018-2023 inclusive where available, even if the year is incomplete. For each case, please state if possible.
b) The nature of the alleged offence and any context if possible

The expansion in the context/summaries provide descriptions specific to the offences. It has been necessary to ensure an individual’s identity cannot be revealed by the information we disclose.

Such information would be internally sensitive and that there is a high likelihood of individuals being identifiable.

A Freedom of Information Act request is not a private transaction. Under Freedom of Information, any information disclosed is released into the wider public domain, effectively to the world, not just to one individual. To disclose the requested data, could publicly reveal information about an individual or individuals, thereby breaching the right to privacy afforded to persons under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Our searches revealed low numbers. A year by year breakdown will not be provided as to do so would be likely to identify individual officers.
Such information would be internally sensitive and that there is a high likelihood of individuals being identifiable and the potential for the disclosed information to be combined with related information known to, or accessible by, police officers and staff. This would be unwarranted as they would reasonably expect information relating to alleged misconduct to be held in confidence and not be disclosed for a non-law enforcement purpose.

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

The request constitutes criminal offence data and special category data.

The requested information includes ‘special category data’ (as defined in Article 9(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and may constitute personal data concerning -
• Sex life

Reasonable expectations

Police Officers would have an expectation that information about complaints 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.

Section 40 –Data

Special category data

The requested information includes ‘special category data’ (as defined in Article 9(1)) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) concerning:
- sex life

The ICO’s guidance titled ‘Personal information (section 40 and regulation 13)1states:

‘In order for the disclosure of special category data to be lawful, a condition for processing must be met...

Due to its sensitivity, the conditions for processing special category 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. These are in Article 9(2) of the GDPR:
• explicit consent; or
• the processing relates to personal data which has clearly been made public by the individual concerned.

’Neither of these conditions for processing special category data are met in relation to your request.

Criminal offence data

The requested information constitutes personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures (as defined in GDPR Article 10 and Section 11(2) of the Data Protection Act 2018), specifically information relating to:

• the alleged commission of offences by one or more data subjects
• proceedings for an offence committed or alleged to have been committed by one or more data subjects or the disposal of such proceedings, including sentencing.

The ICO’s guidance titled ‘Personal information (section 40 and regulation 13) states:

‘In order for you to disclose criminal offence data lawfully, under Article 10 of the GDPR, in addition to an Article 6 basis for processing, the disclosure must either:
• be carried out under the control of official authority; or
• meet a specific condition in Schedule 1 of the DPA.

In the UK there is currently no definition of an official authority in this context. Therefore, for the purpose of considering the disclosure of such information under FOIA or the EIR, you need to consider whether any of the conditions in Schedule 1 of the DPA apply...

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 processing of this data by way of disclosure for the purposes of responding to a FOIA request does not meet a specific condition within Schedule 1 of the DPA.

In the circumstances of your request, disclosure would contravene the first data protection principle, specified within Article 5(1)(a) of the GDPR which requires that personal data shall be:

‘processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’)

Disclosure

Please see attached spreadsheet titled ‘Final - FOIA response 01-FOI-23-034185’ for: Q1c, Q2 - (Allegation Type), Q2d

Q1 - I would be grateful if you could provide the total number of complaints received within your organisation of rape, sexual assault or other forms of sexual misconduct made by females against serving male police officers.
Q1c - Where the complainant is female and a member of the public.

Q2 - Please provide figures for the years 2018-2023 inclusive where available, even if the year is incomplete. For each case, please state if possible.
Q2d - The outcome of each investigation, e.g., charged, suspension, referred to the IPCC, dismissed, resigned, transferred etc.

(Grand totals has been provided in tables 2, 3 and 4).

Q3 - Following the publication of the Baroness Casey review of the Metropolitan Police and the Angiolini Inquiry, please provide responses to the following questions.
Q3a - What policies and procedures have been updated and implemented in your force?

• The Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) have enhanced reporting channels and investigative response to criminal allegations, with the formation of the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences (DASO) investigation unit in DPS, with specialist training provided, and a dedicated whistle-blower team within Intelligence Bureau (IB). In Nov 2022 a new Crime Stoppers Anti-Corruption & Abuse line was launched.

• The DPS Complaints Resolution Unit (CRU) have taken steps to enhance the response to criminal allegations made by one member of the force against another. Since February 2023, all allegations relating to Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, Sexual Offences and Discrimination are assessed by the CRU; whereas previously this was the responsibility of the local Basic Command Unit (BCU) Appropriate Authorities. This local practice led to the inconsistencies in decision making, due to a large and more isolated pool of decision makers. Since February 2023, decisions are now taken by a small group of specialist Appropriate Authorities who are able to consult and refine their decisions daily.

• All DPS investigators attend a 4 day legislation and regulations training course (SANCUS) and the DPS investigation teams have an additional 2 day Specialist Investigators course, which was introduced in June 2022. This is intended to improve investigator confidence in the practical application of processes and procedures relating to misconduct investigations. A refresher disclosure course has also been delivered to all investigators. Recent Kings Counsel training enhanced the investigators understanding of relevant case law and guidance in the misconduct investigations arena.

• All DASO staff have a safeguarding background and understand the complexities of these types of investigations. This has led to improved investigation standards and timeliness of investigations.

• In November 2021 the MPS conducted a review on DPS live investigations for sexual offences and domestic abuse, plus a dip sample of 100 cases where police officers or members of police staff remained employed in the MPS post investigation. This review identified 35 areas of learning; including better support for victims and witnesses, the use of dedicated Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVA) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVA) services, recording standards, and an investigators template. As part of the Commissioner’s Turnaround Plan, this review process has been significantly extended and all relevant cases from April 2012 are being reviewed as part of Operation Onyx.

• In January 2023, DPS introduced a small witness care team to ensure improved victim support, including support for reporters and witnesses of wrongdoing. They support the investigation teams with victim engagement strategies and ensure the voice of the victim is heard and considered by DPS investigators. This improved victim support has been achieved through the introduction of IDVAs and ISVAs and a Victim’s Pledge internally with further engagement and support from 3rd Sector Support Agencies via the London Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) consortium in order to obtain direct feedback re our investigation and victim care standards. The Witness Care Team maintain all victim care following a determination of case to answer for Gross Misconduct, and offer a pre-hearing familiarisation visit with the victim and offer to support the victim at the hearing.

• The DPS Prevention and Engagement (P&E) team, alongside a quarterly risk and assurance meeting, supports the governance of the internal learning recommendations. The Community Reference Group (CRG) Scrutiny Panel which is made up of CRG members and representatives from the DPS investigative strands includes DASO and Op Onyx cases. These engagements ensure compliance and continuous improvement is both identified and progressed.

• DPS works with the Commander for Safeguarding and MPS Lead Responsible Officers (LROs) for domestic abuse, rape and sexual offences to ensure an effective link between criminal investigations into police officer’s off duty incidents (investigated by local units) where the DPS Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences unit (DASO) are responsible for the parallel misconduct investigation. Additionally for ‘on-duty’ criminal investigations, the DASO team have additional IDVA and ISVA resource to support victims. As part of this close liaison with the Commander for safeguarding, Lead Responsible Officers (LROs) and front line policing DASO have provided input into implementing a Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offence Victim Pledge which lays out the MPS’s commitment to officers and staff reporting domestic abuse and sexual offences to ensure a response which is tailored to protect and support them. As part of that commitment each BCU will appoint a Senior Oversight Officer (SOO) for all domestic abuse and sexual offence investigations that involve a serving MPS police officer or member of police staff, whether as victim or suspect and all domestic abuse and sexual offence investigations involving serving officers and members of police staff. The role of the SOO is to QA (Quality Assurance) adherence to the pledge and oversee an Oversight and Scrutiny Panel to ensure these investigations are being gripped following best practice developed by Sussex Police.

• The MPS adopted the NPCC’s (National Police Chiefs Council) Sexual Harassment Policy and circulated it via the Intranet on 27th April 2023 along with details of the support options available. To ensure compliance, this message was reinforced to all BCUs/OCUs by the DPS P&E team who circulated the policy again direct to all staff via the Professional Standards User Group on 21/06/2023. Governance is undertaken via the Police Perpetrated Sexual Offences & Domestic Abuse Working Group (Quarterly) chaired at Commander level. The purpose of the Working Group is to identify and monitor trends in order to address offending and better support victims.

• Signa (an online reporting tool to anonymously share experiences of sexual harassment in the Met which collates information about incidents of sexual harassment) was launched in December 2021and is now embedded as an online recording tool for those reluctant to report sexual harassment.

Q3. Following the publication of the Baroness Casey review of the Metropolitan Police and the Angiolini Inquiry, please provide responses to the following questions.
Q3b - Have any changes in the vetting process been implemented in terms of recruiting new officers? If so, what specific changes have been made?

The Baroness Casey review was published in March 2023. Since then, the Metropolitan Police has:

• Completed a proof of concept on the use of new technology for open source checks. This is now out for tender.
• Conducted an end to end review of Vetting.
• Commenced a transformation project that will focus on four key areas of vetting (Data & Technology; Policy & Process; People & Workforce; and Culture & Change) with the aim of ensuring that the vetting provision within the Met is first-class in terms of integrity, service provision and innovation.
• Reviewed and Implemented processes to ensure robust application of the national decision making model (NDM) when making vetting decisions
• Begun a review of its vetting policies, including guidelines on decision making
• Conducted training needs analysis and delivered additional training where appropriate
• Engaged with the National Protective Security Authority to look at tools and methodologies to improve employee assurance
• Begun preparations to implement the new Authorised Professional Practice for vetting, once published.