Information about Operation Hopgrove
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.037816
I note you seek access to the following information:
Please can you tell me the following about Operation Hopgrove:
- The total cost of Operation Hopgrove to date, including staffing.
- The total number of officers who have worked on the operation to date. Please break down by rank if possible.
Clarification -
Can you provide further information about Operation Hopgrove please? For example, can you provide further information about the nature of the investigation and/or who it concerns, if known, please? This will assist me to determine whether the MPS holds information that is relevant to your request for information.
On the 14 May 2024, you responded to my email and stated:
“Operation Hopgrove is the Met's investigation into staff abuse of pupils at Whitefield School, a special school in Walthamstow.”
Clarification -
I am hoping to get a response to you today but I wanted to double check a small point please?
You have asked for the total number of officers who have worked on Operation Hopgrove to date with a rank breakdown. I have the figure for the Operation Hopgrove team, at its largest, broken down by rank. Would this figure satisfy this part of your request for information?
On the 29 May 2024, you responded to my email and stated:
I hope you are well also.
That's good news, thank you - and the figure for the team at its largest, broken down by rank, would indeed be satisfactory.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.
Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
In response to your request for:
Q1 - The total cost of Operation Hopgrove to date, including staffing.
The MPS does not hold the total cost of Operation Hopgrove The cost of a police investigation is largely comprised of:
- Police officer and police staff time deployed during the course of an investigation. This will typically include a range of activities such as securing any available evidence, tracing and interviewing any witnesses and suspects and reviewing and preparing any available evidence for any applicable criminal proceedings.
- Police officer and police staff time dealing with arrests and/or processing detainees where applicable.
- Police officer and police staff overtime payments.
- Any applicable expenses claimed.
- Costs associated with vehicles, equipment and any other applicable tools used to further the investigation.
- Miscellaneous expenses.
When considering whether the MPS holds the information that would enable your request to be answered, I have given regard to the following:
a. Cost codes are attached to a particular activity, operation or investigation by the Met’s Finance Team and allow defined costs to be recorded. Some investigations may carry a unique cost code but the majority of MPS investigations do not. Operation Hopgrove has its own cost code that was used to record some overtime associated with this investigation. This does not capture all overtime or any other costs associated with this investigation.
b. Police officers and in particular, senior police officers, are involved in a number of different investigations and activities at any given time. In many cases, a police officer’s duties for a particular day are not dedicated to a single investigation, operation or activity.
c. Police officers record their daily duties on the Computer Aided Resource Management System (CARMS) but generally do not record their duties in sufficient detail to enable the precise time spent on a particular investigation to be established.
d. Members of police staff that support police investigations are generally not required to record their daily duties on any system. There is therefore often no record of police staff time spent supporting a police investigation.
e. Each police employee receives a unique salary based on their individual rate of pay as they progress through the pay spine of their respective grade/rank. Rates of pay also differ based on any applicable allowances and the pension scheme to which each employee is aligned. The MPS also makes individual national insurance contributions and pension contributions for each employee. Accurate employee costs per investigation can therefore only be calculated based on individual rates of pay/costs and the time they have spent performing duties in connection with that investigation. This cannot accurately be calculated owing to the absence of reliable data as set out at points a-d above.
f. Vehicles, fuel, equipment and other miscellaneous costs cannot accurately be reported by the MPS.
The information requested cannot accordingly be provided for the reasons set out at points a-f above.
Q2 - The total number of officers who have worked on the operation to date. Please break down by rank if possible.
Answer: The Operation Hopgrove investigative team, at its largest, consisted of:
- 1 x Detective Inspector.
- 1 x Detective Sergeant.
- 11 x Constables.
DUTY TO ADVISE AND ASSIST
Under Section 16 of the Act, there is a duty to advise and assist those that have made a request for information. In accordance with this duty, I can confirm that the MPS publishes information about various types of crime on its website. I have provided a link to this information below.
MPS Website: Stats and Data
Additionally, it may assist you to note that the MPS proactively publishes all disclosures made in response to requests made under the Act on its Publication Scheme. I have provided a link to this section of the MPS website below.
MPS Website: Publication Scheme
The MPS Publication Scheme can be searched using keywords and may accordingly hold other information that is of interest to you.
The MPS can consider a request for the overtime costs associated with Operation Hopgrove, as recorded under the Operation Hopgrove cost code.
It should be noted that this cost code does not capture all overtime associated with this investigation.