BNP membership.

Dear Mark

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 0519/2009

We acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which
was received by Cambridgeshire Constabulary on 5th October 2009.

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. You will receive a response within the statutory
timescale of twenty working days as defined by the Act. In some
circumstances, we may be unable to achieve this deadline. If this is the
case, you will be informed and given a revised time-scale at the earliest
opportunity.

If we require any further clarification regarding this request, you will be
notified.

We would advise you that the nature of certain requests may involve payment
of a fee. If this is the case, you will be notified.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
telephone on 0345 456 456 4 asking for the Information Access Office or
email [Cambridgeshire Constabulary request email]

Regards

David Price
Information Access Office
Cambridgeshire Constabulary

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Dear Mark

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 0519/2009

In reply to your request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, dated 3rd October 2009 and which was received in Cambridgeshire
as follows:

In November 2008 the membership list of the British National Party (BNP)
was published online. On September 1, 2009 a disgruntled
former official Matt Single was convicted in relation to this for offences
under the Data Protection Act.

I refer to Schedule 1 of The Data Protection Principles. Under Schedule 1,
any use of 'sensitive personal data' must be processed only when at least
one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and at least one of the
conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.

1. Please tell me if the Cambridgeshire Constabulary has processed any
data relating to the leaked British National Party membership
list.

2. Please tell me which of the conditions in Schedule 2 and Schedule 3
were met when processing sensitive personal data?

3. Has sensitive personal data been used for any purposes other than
comparing against the Cambridgeshire Constabulary Police
personnel database?

4. Who was responsible for the decision to compare sensitive personnel
data against Cambridgeshire Constabulary Police's
personnel data?

5. What were the grounds for such a decision?

6. I request the minutes of any meeting held to come to such a
decision.

7. Please describe the process used in making such a decision and
whether the consequences of this decision, if any, were
accessed.

Please be aware that your questions have been renumbered to promote clarity
and the use of the word 'personnel' in your question has been interpreted
as being in regard to any personal data held within a personnel record.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (The Act) requires us to handle all
requests in a manner that is blind to the identity of the requestor. Any
information released in response to a request is regarded as being
published, and therefore in the public domain without caveat.

We have completed all searches within Cambridgeshire Constabulary and
hereby enclose your response.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties
on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at s1(1)(a)
is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is
held. The second duty at s1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been
confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon s17 of FOIA
requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that
fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would
not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

The Cambridgeshire Constabulary can neither confirm nor deny that it holds
the information you requested as the duty in s1(1)(a) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 30(3) Investigations,
Section 31(3) Law Enforcement and
Section 40(5)(b)(i) Personal Information

Cambridgeshire Constabulary is unable to confirm nor deny whether it holds
any information in regard to any investigation(s) it may or may not have
carried out and which have not been made public. For the Constabulary to
so do has great potential to undermine any such investigation by alerting
those who are suspected of criminal activity and may also create difficulty
in progressiong any investigation which is covert in nature. In itself,
this would reveal our tactical options and thus undermine any future
investigations. In the case of this request specifically, there also
exists the potential to disclose personal data of an member of staff since
the list contains the names of individuals. To confirm or deny that
actions may or may not have been taken will reveal whether an individual
named was suspected of being employed by Cambridgeshire Constabulary. This
may not mean that they are members of the BNP but simply confirm that we
have a member of staff with the same name.

Before refusing to comply with the provisions of S1(1)(a) of the Freedom of
Information Act, the force also has to analyse any public interest factors
in neither confirming nor denying that information is or is not held if any
of the exemptions cited are qualified in nature. Both S30 and S31 are, so
the following public interest factors are relevant.

S30 Investigations

For Confirming or Denying

Accountability:

to confirm that the Constabulary have conducted this type of investigation
would demonstrate it's willingness to operate in an open manner.

Against Confirming/Denying

Investigations:

an investigation if unknown may realistically be compromised and it could
hinder the prevention or detection of crime. That may even be because under
FOIA forces may provide different responses and application of the S30
exemption in some areas and not others would in fact immediately expose
such investigations. It is not in the public interest to release
information which would contradict our duty to conduct investigations
effectively.

S31 Law Enforcement

For confirmation or denial:

Accountability: Some information regarding the ability to check against the
list is already in the public domain and its full usage would make the
public better informed. Cambridgeshire Constabulary have previously
published a response to an FOI request, in September 2009, regarding
membership of the BNP.

Against confirmation or denial:

Law enforcement tactics could be compromised and there could be a hindrance
to the prevention or detection of crime.

Balance Test

It is my decision that the potential harm to both current and future
investigation will outweigh any public benefit in being made aware if any
additional information to that already publish is, or is not, held. Police
Officers and Police Staff are publicly accountable for their actions and
behaviour through misconduct regulations and the Constabulary is itself
accountable to Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary to ensure robustness
of their procedures. The Independent Police Complaints Commission further
regulate the application of appropriate policies and procedures adopted by
the Constabulary.

I see no other community benefit in complying with Section 1(1)(a) of the
Freedom of Information Act at this point in time.

This response should not be taken as an inference that the force does, or
does not hold any further information in relation to your request.

I can advise you that Schedule 2, Condition 5 and Schedule 3 paragraph 10
(Statutory Instrument 417/2000, the Data Protection (Processing of
Sensitive Personal Data) Order 2000, paragraph 2)) allows a police
authority such as Cambridgeshire Constabulary a legal entitlement to
process sensitive data in this way.

The basis for a decision, such as this, would be that membership of the BNP
is wholly incompatible with the role of a police officer/police staff and
thus would be regarded as gross misconduct. Cambridgeshire Constabulary
would take formal action in such circumstances; this should not be taken to
mean that we have done so at this time.

If you are unhappy with this response, please see the attachment below,
which sets out your rights to appeal.

(See attached file: Complaint Rights.pdf)

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
contact the Information Access Office via email, or on telephone number
0345 456 456 4 extension 8164.

Regards

David Price
Information Access Office
Cambridgeshire Constabulary

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Dear Sir,

Please attached a covering letter, amended response and complaints
procedure, following the FOI Appeals Panel of Thursday of last week

Kind regards

Niki Howard
Assistant Chief Officer (ACPO)

1. Covering letter:

(See attached file: FOI Mr Walker.doc)

2. Amended response (attachment):

(See attached file: Revised Response.pdf)

3. Complaints pdf

(See attached file: Complaint Rights new.nov - 09.pdf)

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