Crimes committed by individuals from either Tajikistan or Uzbekistan from 2022 to 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.25.042267

I note you seek access to the following information:

• The total number of recorded crimes committed by individuals of Uzbek nationality within your jurisdiction from January 2022 to December 2023.
• The total number of recorded crimes committed by individuals of Tajik nationality within your jurisdiction from January 2022 to December 2023.

If possible, could you also provide a breakdown of the types of crimes committed by individuals of both nationalities during this period?

I understand that personal information or data identifying individuals cannot be disclosed, and I am only requesting anonymized statistical information.

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(3)(a) - Personal Information

Reason for decision

Data has been aggregated due to low figures. The figures have been presented this way to reduce identification and has been applied.

Please see the legal annex for further information on the exemptions applied in respect of your request.

Section 40(2)(3A)(a) – Personal Information - is applicable in this case, as any further disclosure at this level of detail, would breach the 1st data protection principle that requires personal data to be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals.

There is no presumption of disclosure in relation to ‘personal data’ which is defined as: ‘any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual’

“Identifiable living individual” means a living individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—

(a) An identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or
(b) One or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individual.’

For such disclosure to be lawful, it would be necessary to satisfy a condition within Article 6 of the GDPR. Article 6 sets out the six lawful bases, applying to all processing; one of which must be in place in every case of disclosure of personal data, in accordance with the first data protection principle. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance provides:

‘In all circumstances, you must have an Article 6 lawful basis for processing.

There are six lawful bases for processing in Article 6, but only (a) consent or (f) legitimate interest are relevant to disclosure under FOIA or EIR.

In order to assess whether this lawful basis is engaged you need to consider three key questions:

(i) Purpose: what is the legitimate interest in disclosure of the information?
(ii) Necessity: is disclosure necessary for that purpose?
(iii) Balancing test: does the legitimate interest outweigh the interests and rights of the individual?’

Here, we need to balance the rights and freedoms of the individuals involved with any legitimate public interest in disclosure. Any further disclosure of the requested information complete with the individuals Nationality and the Major Crime Category for which they were proceeded against , under FOIA legislation is not necessary to meet a legitimate interest, particularly when considering the distress that is likely to be caused to individuals with the disclosure of wholly personal information via an FOIA request.

With this in mind, the data subjects in the circumstances of your request would have a legitimate expectation that this type of personal data would not be used for non-policing purposes (i.e. FOIA requests – disclosures for which are also placed on the MPS website Publication Scheme).

Any further disclosure in the circumstances of your request would be unlawful and would therefore contravene the first data protection principle. I have therefore applied the exemption provided under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act to this information as the first condition, defined in subsection (3A)(a) of Section 40 has been satisfied. This therefore, becomes an absolute exemption.

Disclosure

Please find below redacted data in pursuant to your request above.