Information

Request

Can I please request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act – in relation to the police force you have oversight of:

1.

1. a) How many police officers in your force were convicted of a serious sexual offence between 1^stJanuary 2013 & 30^thApril 2023, broken down by year?
2. b) How many of these officers subsequently had their pension withdrawn, broken down by year?  If only part of the pension was withdrawn please state what percentage.

2.

1. a) How many police officers in your force were convicted of manslaughter between 1^stJanuary 2013 & 30^thApril 2023, broken down by year?
2. b) How many of these officers subsequently had their pension withdrawn, broken down by year?  If only part of the pension was withdrawn please state what percentage.

3.

1. a) How many police officers in your force were convicted of murder between 1^stJanuary 2013 & 30^thApril 2023, broken down by year?
2. b) How many of these officers subsequently had their pension withdrawn, broken down by year?  If only part of the pension was withdrawn please state what percentage.

4. What is the approximate annual cost of the pensions granted to those police officers convicted of serious sexual assault, manslaughter or murder between 2013 & 2023, still in receipt of their pension?

Response

It is important to understand that The Office of the Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC) and Northamptonshire Police are two separate legal entities. Information regarding operational policing matters is the responsibility of Northamptonshire Police, therefore the OPFCC does not hold the information you have requested.

 

Information relating to questions 1(a) 2(a) and 3(a) may be held by Northamptonshire Police’s Information Unit. If you have not already done so, then you may wish to write to their Freedom of Information and Data Protection Team, Information Unit, Force Headquarters, Wootton Hall, Northampton, NN4 0JQ / freedomofinformation@northants.pnn.police.uk

 

Information relating to questions 1(b) 2(b), the OPFCC does not hold any information.

 

In relation to 3(b), the provisions in Section 40 (1) to (4) of the Freedom of Information Act exempt personal data from disclosure and Section 1(1) (a) of the FOIA imposes a duty on a public authority to either confirm or deny if it holds information specified in a request.

 

However, in relation to a request which constitutes the personal data of individual(s), section 40(580), further excludes a public authority from complying with the duty imposed by section 1(1)(a) FOCA complying with that duty would contravene any of the data protection principles under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)

 

Therefore, the first element that needs to be met before relying on section 40(5) (b) (0) is that the information requested should, if held, constitute the personal data of a third party (e someone other than the person making the request)

 

Personal data is defined in the DPA as follows:

 

“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual (subject to subsection (14)(c)) [and] “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

 

As FOI requests are disclosures to the world (not just to the applicant making the request), if the Office of the Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC) were to use exemptions against the information requested (rather rely on the use Section 40 (5)(b))) this would provide the public with information about a certain individual or individuals.

 

However, as Section 40(5) (b) (1) specifically refers to giving confirmation or denial to ‘a member of the public’ it could be argued that giving confirmation or denial to the requestor would not necessarily contravene any Data Protection Principles. Nevertheless, even if we confirmed that we held the information, and then withheld it under another exemption of the Act (e.g., Section 40 (2)) the confirmation alone would disclose personal data of the Data subject/s.

 

The next element I have considered is whether confirming or denying if the information requested is held, would contravene any of the Data Protection principles.

 

The first Data Protection principle states: ‘that the processing of personal data for any of the law enforcement purposes must be lawful and fair. It is our belief that confirmation or denial that the OPFCC hold the information requested would be unfair to those who may/may not fall into the remit of the request, and therefore contravention of the first data protection principle.

 

This is because simply confirming whether or not OPFCC holds the information requested would provide personal information, and to do so would not be fair. If the OPFCC confirmed or denied that we held data surrounding an individual this would amount to the disclosure of personal data because we would be telling the world something about that individual/s.

 

Lastly, in terms of the legitimate interests in disclosure, the information requested would be personal to any individual’s it may or may not concern. Therefore, confirmation as to whether or not any information is in fact held would not be of any benefit to the public. Therefore, in accordance with section 40(5)(b)(1) of the FOIA 2000, I can neither confirm nor deny that this information is held by the OPFCC.

 

In relation to question 4, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) contains a number of exemptions that allow public authorities to withhold certain information from release. We have applied the exemption at s40(2) of the FOIA.

 

Section 40(2) of the FOIA states that personal data relating to third parties (i.e. a party other than the person requesting the information) is exempt information if disclosure of the requested information would be contrary to the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

 

Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption not subject to the Public Interest Test.