Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) referrals by Royalty and Specialist Protection (RaSP)

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.037346

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. Could you please state how many individual cases were taken on by the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) that were referred to it by the Royalty and Specialist Protection (RaSP) unit and at what level of concern were these cases categorised.
   Please provide the information for the period 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024.
2. Using the most convenient date please state how many individuals were on the books of the FTAC that were assessed as being of a ‘high’ level of concern? How many of those had initially been referred to FTAC by RaSP?

CLARIFICATION -
Apologies. In question 1 the date should be 31 December 2023 NOT 31 December 2024.

Re Q. 2. I just wanted to allow you to take a date to do the analysis that was as easy for you as it could be.
However, if you’d like me to specify a specific date then I would say 31 December 2024.

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 21 - Information Accessible by Other Means

Reason for decision

Your request seeks data over a 12-month period. However, information has already been disclosed following a previous FOIA request covering the period 01 January 2023 – 30 November 2023, in relation to cases taken on following a referral by RaSP officers to the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC). Therefore, although this information is held by the MPS, it is already in the public domain and can be found via the link provided below.

Referrals to the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre from January to November 2023

This information has been identified as being accessible via other means as it is already published. Where information is already in the public domain the MPS are not required to re-publish the data; instead public authorities are required to direct you to the information, which we have done in this instance. This action is in accordance with Section 21 - Information Accessible by Other Means of the Freedom of Information Act.

Disclosure

As 11 months of data is already available to you for Question 1, please find below information covering the remaining period, 01 December 2023 – 31 December 2023, pursuant to your request above.

• During the above period 16 referrals were made to FTAC from RaSP.
• The initial level of concern was as follows:

 High - 1
 Moderate - 12
 Low - 3

Please note this data relates only to referrals made by RaSP and does not represent the overall referrals received by FTAC.

Additionally, there may be some small anomalies with the figures shown due to the way our systems operate. The referral figures are only accurate at the time the system searches are run. For example, referral dates on the system used can be overwritten if a case is re-opened. This means if another search was run on the system at a later date, the figures for the same requested time period could differ.

In regard to the second part of your request, unfortunately this information is not held. I would like to take opportunity to explain why the information sought is not held by the MPS. The system used by FTAC to record information does not capture and record the level of concern on a specific date in time. Data can only be provided based on the date a report has been run. It is for this reason the MPS is unable to advise how may individuals were on the books of FTAC that were assessed as being of a ‘high’ level of concern as at 31 December 2023.