2022/25392 - Problem profiles
REQUEST
Please provide a copy of the below reports as set out in your response to 2022/25114
1) ‘Violence Against Women and Girls’ profile assessment - produced in November 2021
2) ‘Rape’ profile assessment - produced in March 2022
3) ‘Domestic Abuse – Monmouth, Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly’ - this used data from Jan 2019 up until Dec 2021.
RESPONSE
Please see below for the following exemptions:
Section 12 – Excess Cost
Unfortunately, we cannot answer this request as it will exceed the 18-hour time limit to complete the request. In order to retrieve the data, each document would need to be reviewed and redacted. It would take over six hours to review each individual document, which would equate to more 18 hours of research. Therefore, a Section 12 Excess Cost exemption has been applied.
Section 12 – Excess Cost
The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 12(1) of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.
Section 12(1) “does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
In the case of a police force, the appropriate limit is set at £450, which is calculated at £25 per hour (i.e., 18 hours). Gwent Police would have to conduct a manual search to find and extract the information for this question. This would take more than 18 hours of staff time therefore we are unable to answer this question and the exemption is engaged.
Section 31(3) Law Enforcement
Section 23 is a class based absolute exemption and there is no requirement to consider the public interest test in this area.
Section 31 is a prejudice based qualified exemption which means the legislators have identified a requirement to articulate the harm that would be caused in confirming or not that the information is held as well as carrying out a public interest test.
Overall Harm
The Police Service is charged with enforcing the law, preventing and detecting crime and protecting the communities we serve. Modern-day policing is intelligence led and in this particular subject area the intelligence changes on a day-by-day basis.
Disclosure of the requested information would reveal current intelligence which has the potential to seriously undermine effective law enforcement. For example, if an offender knew that the police were aware of his activities this could encourage him to move to another location where he could commit crimes undetected. Further requests of this nature would enable offenders to map across the country where similar activities have or have not been monitored and detected by the police. This would frustrate the prevention and detection of crime.
Factors favouring Disclosure for Section 31
Disclosure of this information would provide a better awareness which may reduce crime or lead to more information from the public and it would enable them to take measures in order to protect themselves and their families.
Factors favouring Non-Disclosure for Section 31
To break this information down to the level requested, will divulge policing tactics in as much as it will be clear to see for which offences the police use ‘comms’ data to aid with their investigations. This may then lead to those wishing to commit certain crimes to change their behaviours to avoid detection thus undermining the Police’s capabilities of preventing and detecting crime.
Balancing Test
The Police Service is charged with enforcing the law, preventing and detecting crime and protecting the communities we serve. These roles are of paramount importance and the Police Service will not divulge information if to do so would place the safety of an individual at risk or undermine the prevention or detection of crime.
Whilst there is a public interest in the transparency of policing operations and providing assurance that the police service is appropriately and effectively investigating this type of offence, there is a very strong public interest in safeguarding the public as well as the integrity of police investigations and operations.
Therefore, at this moment in time, it is our opinion that for these issues the balancing test for disclosure for questions is not made out.
Section 40(5) – Personal Information
The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 40(5) – Personal Information, of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.
Disclosure under Freedom of Information is a release of information to the world in general and not an individual applicant. Therefore, simply confirming or not that such information were held would disclose personal information about individuals.
As such, any disclosure that identifies an individual or identifies that an individual has had contact with Gwent Police or not is exempt. Personal data is defined under Section 10 of the Data Protection Act 2018 as:
Data which relate to a living individual who can be identified-
(a) from those data, or
(b) from those data and other information, which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller, and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual. “
In accordance with the Act, this represents a Refusal Notice for this part of your request. No inference can be taken from this refusal that the information you have requested does or does not exist.
Under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we have a duty to assist you where possible. Therefore, to establish if personal data is being processed by Gwent Police, individuals are required to make application under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998, by means of submitting a completed Data Protection Subject Access form.