Non-crime hate incident from 2019 to 2024

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.041891

I note you seek access to the following information:

Please provide the following data on non-crime hate incidents, for the period between 1 January 2019 to the current date, broken down by calendar year.

Please send me:

1. The total number of non-crime hate incidents recorded by your police force from 1 January 2019 to the current date. Please break down the data by calendar year.
2. A breakdown of non-crime hate incidents recorded in your jurisdiction from 1 January 2019 to the current date. The data should be categorised by type of perceived hate (e.g., race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, transgender identity etc.).
3. Provide anonymised demographic data (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity) of individuals involved in non-crime hate incidents recorded between 1 January 2019 to the current date to the current date. This should include both complainants and alleged offenders.
4. How many non-crime hate incidents were recorded in your jurisdiction involving online or social media activity between 1 January 2019 to the current date to the current date?

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 30(1)(a)(i) – Criminal Investigations
Section 40(2)(3A)(a) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

You have asked us to disclose the total number of non-crime hate incidents recorded by the MPS from 1 January 2019 to the date of your request, broken down by calendar year, type of hate, demographics of complainants and alleged offenders, and have further asked for the total of non-crime hate incidents which involved online or social media activity over the same date range broken down by type of offence, and age and gender of victim and perpetrator.

I have made the decision to disclose the information you are seeking, however, due to extremely low numbers located for some hate incident types, some religions, and suspects under ten, I am unable to provide that data broken down as you have requested. Disclosing the data broken down by type of hate incident, religion, and suspects aged under 10, when low figures are realised, would identify specific incidents and individuals concerned, and would release sensitive personal information in relation to those individuals into the public domain. In cases where low figures have been identified, data has been aggregated.

For the above reasons, the exemptions provided by Section 40(2)(3), and Section 30(1)(a)(i) of the Act, have been applied to refuse full disclosure of the information broken down as you have requested.
Section 30(1)(a)(i) - Criminal Investigations - Disclosing information to the level of granularity you are seeking would identify specific investigations. Disclosing this level of detail in relation to investigations, and specific information collected for that purpose, would undermine the investigative process, diminishing the MPS’ ability to accurately and successfully determine if an individual is/individuals are guilty of a criminal offence.

The outcome for some of the offences have yet to be determined therefore, to release any further information would compromise our law enforcement investigative functions. Should any offences be identified following investigation into the incidents, disclosure could prejudice the investigation, and impact on an individual’s right to a fair trial, which cannot be in the public interest.

There is a public interest in the transparency of the investigation of incidents and crime, and in providing assurance that the MPS is appropriately and effectively dealing with hate crime. However, there is also a strong public interest in safeguarding the integrity of police investigations, by not releasing information that could hinder investigations and prejudice the outcome of any legal proceedings.

I consider that the benefit that would result from the information being disclosed does not outweigh the considerations favouring non-disclosure, particularly given the level of information disclosed today – which I believe satisfies the wider public interest.

Section 40(2)(3A)(a) – Personal Information - is an absolute exemption in cases which would breach the right to privacy afforded to persons under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), as in this case. Disclosing the data broken down as you have requested would identify individual cases and individuals concerned and would release personal sensitive information in relation to those individuals into the public domain. As no permission has been sought to release this information it would be in breach of the DPA 2018 and GDPR, and would therefore be illegal, and there is therefore no requirement to evidence harm or conduct a public interest test.

Disclosure

Please see the spreadsheet below for information relevant to your request. Please ensure that the data provided is read in conjunction with the notes page of the spreadsheet to ensure correct interpretation of the data provided.

Please note that the following data has been anonymised:

Table 1
Data re hate incidents for the religions Buddhist, Sikh, and Hindu, have been aggregated, due to low figures when broken down by each religion.

Table 2
Racial and Homophobic Incidents – specified investigations, have been aggregated, due to low figures when broken down by incident type.

Table 3
Data for Religious – Other, and Religious – Unknown have been aggregated, due to low figures when broken down separately.

Table 4
Suspect Age – Low figures for suspects aged under 10 are realised when broken down by calendar year. The data for that age group has therefore been presented as a grand total instead of by calendar year.