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Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.037704
I note you seek access to the following information:
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(1)(b) - Information accessible to applicant by other means.
Section 40(2)(3)(a)(b) – Personal Information.
Reason for decision
Section 21(1)(b) - Information accessible to applicant by other means.
Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under Section 1 is exempt information.
Information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.
Section 40(2)(3)(a)(b) – Personal Information - The documents below contain some personal information in relation to individual names, this information has been removed as it would not be reasonable for those named to have their names placed into the public domain. In addition, internal phone numbers have also been removed as these are linked to specific lines for this unit.
Section 40(2)(a)(b) of the Act 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.
The names of staff members mentioned in the requested correspondence, do not hold roles where they would reasonably expect their names to be published in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. I have not therefore identified a legitimate interest that would be satisfied in disclosing their personal data in response to this request for information. In addition, I have also removed the internal phone numbers as mentioned above, these are linked to specific units in the MPS.
Disclosure
I am pleased to inform you that the information requested in relation to the Data Protection Act is held by the MPS and is already in the public domain. The information can be accessed via the following:
In addition to the above, please see the link below to the College of Policing website which you may find of interest.
Freedom of information | College of Policing
Q1 - Please provide a headcount of Met department dealing with FOI, EIR and DP Requests.
The MPS have 101 staff working in Data Rights. Please note that not all of these are MPS employees, some are employed by REED agency and are not in permanent posts. The breakdown is as follows:
By DP requests it has been assumed that you mean Right of Access (AKA Subject Access or DSAR), Right of Erasure, Right of Rectification and Right to restrict processing.
This includes staff that manage our mailboxes, handle our post and perform other duties such as the publication scheme or risk assessments. It also includes all management up to and including the Head of Data Rights.
Lastly, please find below the service procedure/policy in relation to dealing with FoIA requests.