Officers dismissed for sexual assaults in each year since 2014

 

I note you seek access to the following information:

 

Officer Sexual Assaults

 

Could you please tell me how many officers in your force have been dismissed and/or prosecuted for sexual assaults in each year since 2014?

 

Could you also please specify how many in each year were recorded as rape?

 

If possible, could you also please break down the number of men and women officers in each year. 

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) - Personal Information 

 

 

Before I explain reasons for the decisions that I have made in relation to your request, I thought that it would be helpful to outline the parameters set out by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), within which a request for information can be answered.  The Act creates a statutory right of access to information held by public authorities.  A public authority in respect of a request must, if permitted, state under Section 1(a) of the Act, whether it holds the requested information and, if held, then communicate that information to the applicant under Section 1(b) of the Act. 

 

The right of access to information is not without exception and is subject to a number of exemptions which are designed to enable public authorities to withhold information that is unsuitable for release.  Importantly, the Act is designed to place information into the public domain, that is, once access to information is granted to one person under the Act, it is then considered public information and must be communicated to any individual should a request be received. 

 

Our searches revealed that, in total, over the last 10 years, there have been low figures for officers dismissed/prosecuted for sexual assault and recorded for rape. 

 

A year by year breakdown and officer gender 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, due to 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

 

 

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.

 

 

Please see tables below. To reduce harm with disclosure I have provided you with total number of officers dismissed and/or prosecuted for sexual assaults since 2014 and total number that were recorded as rape since 2014.

 

Officer Sexual Assaults 01/01/2014 to 31/12/2024

 

Q1 - Could you please tell me how many officers in your force have been dismissed and/or prosecuted for sexual assaults since 2014?

Officer Count  - 46

 

 

Officer Count - 12

 

 

The MPS routinely publish misconduct data via the following link –