Rape and sexual assaults from January 2018 to February 2024

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.035633

I note you seek access to the following information:

• How many reports of rape and sexual assault have there been in London from the years 2018 to the present day? Please can I get an annual breakdown for each crime.
• How many of these cases resulted in a charge? This is both charges and postal requisitions. Can I get an annual breakdown for each crime as well.
• If possible, would I be able to get a gender, age range and ethnicity breakdown of those reporting the sexual assaults and rapes and those accused? (For example, the number of male on female crime, or male on male crime. The number of victims reporting aged 18-21 etc)

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)(a)(b) and (3)(a)(i) – Personal Data

Reason for decision

You have requested information in relation to rapes and sexual assaults broken down by each crime. This information has been made exempt from disclosure due to the low numbers returned on some specific crimes. If disclosure was made with data broken down this specifically it is possible that individuals could be identified and therefore the MPS would be in breach of the rights of those individuals.

Section 40(2)(a)(b) and (3)(a)(i) – Personal Information - 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(c) 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 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 the data that has been requested above, however due to the identification issues, all crimes reported have been amalgamated in the following categories:

Assault by Penetration Offences
Attempted Rape Offences
Rape Offences
Sexual Assault Offences

Kindly ensure that the attached data is read in conjunction with the notes page of the spreadsheet. The data provided is likely to be inaccurate for the following reasons which are included on the notes page:

The data shows the total number of these specific offences, with separate tables for the victims and those charged, broken down by police defined ethnicity.

The Police Defined Ethnic Identity category has been used, rather than the Self Defined Ethnic Identity category. This is because the Self Defined Ethnic Identity category is a self-reporting category. This means that not all victims or accused choose to give information regarding their self-defined ethnic identity, leaving the field blank.

In light of the above, the data disclosed from this FOI request is not an accurate reflection of the ethnicity of the victims and those charged with these offences. There are likely to be differences between how ethnicity has been defined by police, and how the individual would self-define their ethnicity.

In light of the above, the data disclosed from this FOI request is not an accurate reflection of the ethnicity of the victims and those charged with these offences AND MUST NOT BE PRESENTED AS SUCH.