0x01 graphic

Reference: SBLK-7KTDGN

I request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

REQUEST

RESPONSE

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

[1a] The total number of homophobic hate crimes reported to you in the last year

[b] The last three years

[1a] Homophobic Hate Crimes reported:

April 2008 to October 2008 - 113

2007/2008 - 121

[1b] The number of Homophobic Hate Crimes reported during the financial years 2004/05, 2005/06 & 2006/07 is exempt under section 12 of the Act.

To determine how many of the incidents during the three years specified, were recorded as a homophobic hate crime, would involve a manual interrogation and cross reference of the 496 incidents with two separate databases. This would exceed the time and cost limits set by the Act, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the `appropriate level' as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which equates to 18 hours. It is estimated it would cost in excess of £450 to comply with your request.

Prior to March 2007, homophobic hate incidents (as opposed to crimes) were recorded on a different force-recording database than is in use now.

The current system allows the number of homophobic hate crimes to be extracted from recorded data. The previous system only allowed the number of incidents to be extracted. The difference is that incidents were cases that were initially perceived to be of a homophobic hate nature, prior to a full investigation that would determine whether the incident would be recorded as a homophobic hate crime.

Recorded Homophobic Hate Incidents** during the same financial years:

2006/07 - 172

2005/06 - 169

2004/05 - 155

[2a] The total number of those hate crimes that were reported to the Crown Prosecution Service in the last year

[b] The last three years

[2a & b] The number of homophobic hate crimes referred to the CPS is not held in a retrievable form.

To determine this figure would involve a manual trawl of all records (as stated above in response to question 1) to determine whether the case was referred to the CPS. Therefore this information is again exempt under Section 12 of the Act, as it would exceed the cost and time limits.

Referrals made to the CPS are made under statutory charging guidelines.

NB: For the purposes of this response a Hate Incident is defined as any incident that may or may not constitute a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate. A Hate Crime is any Hate Incident, which constitutes a criminal offence, perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate. Any crime can be motivated by crime or prejudice.

Merseyside Police takes its response to all Hate Crimes very seriously and in 2007 set up the SIGMA Hate Crime Investigation Units in each Police Area to deal with Hate Crime. These units are staffed by detectives working alongside uniformed officers and police staff and deal exclusively with Hate Crimes. In the short time period in which the SIGMA Teams have been in existence the detection rate for Hate Crime has risen from 25% to 43%. Merseyside Police will continue to work with its local partner agencies though the Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships, Police Staff Networks and local Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender networks to deal with, and help to eradicate, Homophobic Hate Crime. Under Section 16 (Advice & Assistance) I refer you to the following web link to the Association Of Chief Police Officers website which provides guidance to forces on tackling Hate Crime and includes details of Homophobic Incidents.

http://www.acpo.police.uk/asp/policies/Data/Hate%20Crime.pdf

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST SBLK-7KTDGN - RESPONSE

Page 1 of 2