BNP membership list.

Your Ref:
Our Ref:F-2009-02729

07 October, 2009

Dear Mr. Walker,

Thank you for your request for Information, received at this office on
05 October, 2009, in which you requested details of the following:

Data relating to the British National Party

Your request will now be considered and you will receive a response
within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act,
subject to the information not being exempt or containing a reference to
a third party. In some circumstances Humberside Police may be unable to
achieve this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and given
a revised time-scale at the earliest opportunity.

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information you request. If this is the case you will be informed
and the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we receive
payment from you. If you chose not to make a payment then your request
will remain unanswered.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to
another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest
possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

We anticipate being able to provide you with the information that you
have requested on or before 02 November, 2009.

Should you need to discuss this further please do not hesitate to
contact the unit.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Waller
Information Compliance Officer
+44 (1482) 317096
Humberside Police
Corporate Development Branch
Information Compliance Unit
Police Headquarters
Priory Road
Kingston Upon Hull
HU5 5SF
Fax:+44 (1482) 317090

show quoted sections

Your Ref:

Our Ref:F-2009-02729

03 November, 2009

Dear Mr. Walker,

FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000

I write in connection with your request for information dated 05
October, 2009 concerning Data relating to the British National Party.

Your full request is outlined below.

1. Please tell me if the Humberside Police 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 Humberside Police personnel database?

4. Who was responsible for the decision to compare sensitive

personnel

data against Humberside 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 assessed.

Your request for information has now been considered, and on this
occasion Humberside Police will not be supplying the requested
information. Please see below for the exemptions that have been applied,
and the rationale behind them

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Humberside
Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the
information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:

(a) states that fact;

(b) specifies the exemption in question and

(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption
applies.

Section 30(3)- Investigations & Proceedings Conducted by Public
Authorities

The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information
which is (or if it were held by the public authority would be) exempt
information by virtue of subsection (1) or (2). Also -

Section 31(3)- Law Enforcement

(3) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent
that, compliance with section 1(1)(a) would, or would be likely to
prejudice any of the matters mentioned in subsection (1)and -

Section 40 (5)(a)(i) Personal Information

(5) The duty to confirm or deny -

(a) does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were
held by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of
subsection (1), and (b) does not arise in relation to other information
if or to the extent that either-

(i) the giving to a member of the public of the confirmation or denial
that would have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart
from this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles or
section 10 of the Data Protection Act 1998 or would do so if the
exemptions in section 33A(1) of that Act were disregarded.

The force can neither confirm nor deny it holds any information in
relation to investigations it may have or have not conducted, which have
not subsequently been placed in the public domain. Not only would this
undermine any current investigation by alerting those who are suspected
of criminal activity, but it may also thwart any such investigation
which is being managed as a covert operation. This in itself would
disclose our tactical options, undermining future operations, but also
in this case potentially disclose personal data of an individual. This
is because the list to which you refer contained the names of
individuals. To confirm, or deny that certain action may or may not have
been taken will reveal whether an individual named was suspected of
being employed by the force. This may not in fact mean they are a member
of the BNP but in fact do no more than simply confirm that we have a
member of staff with the same name as one that appears on the list.

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

Favouring confirmation or denial:

Confirming the existence of information would show that the force
conducted an investigation, which the public would expect.

Against confirmation or denial:

An investigation if unknown could 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.

S31 Law Enforcement

Favouring confirmation or denial:

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.

Against confirmation or denial:

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

Balance of Public Interest

At this time the potential harm to current and future investigations
outweighs any public benefit in knowing if any additional information
is, or is not held. Police Officers and staff are held to public account
for their actions by the misconduct regulations and the force is held to
account for investigating such matters appropriately by Her Majesties
Inspector Of Constabulary, and/or in some cases by the Independent
Police Complaints Commission. There is no further tangible community
benefit in complying with section 1(1)(a) of the Act at this 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.

It may assist you to know that the Police Service would be legally
entitled to process this sensitive personal data anyway, under 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). The grounds for any decision would be that
being a member of the BNP is incompatible with the role of a police
officer/police staff and would be regarded as gross misconduct requiring
formal action. This does not however mean that the force have taken such
action at this time.

The exemption(s) applicable to the information are Absolute stating

In accordance with the Act, this letter represents a Refusal Notice for
this particular request. This action cannot be taken as confirmation or
denial that Humberside Police holds the information you have asked for.

Should you need to discuss this further please contact Information
Compliance Unit on the details shown below.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Waller

+44 (1482) 317096

Humberside Police

Corporate Development Branch

Information Compliance Unit

Police Headquarters

Priory Road

Kingston Upon Hull

HU5 5SF

Fax:+44 (1482) 317090

Humberside Police - Freedom of Information Complaints Review Procedure

Why Have A Complaints Process?

Humberside Police is committed to delivering an open and transparent
service whenever possible and it is our intention to commit to the
principles of openness embodied in the Freedom of Information Act. We
will release information to the greatest extent possible, consistent
with the public interest, however we may withhold information if we
consider its release would cause significant harm.

If information within a document is withheld, it will be clearly marked
to show where information has been removed and the legal exemption we
have used. If we decline to supply all or part of any information you
have asked for we will notify you in writing giving our reasons based
upon legal exemptions contained within the Freedom of Information Act.

If you are not satisfied about the way in which your Freedom of
Information request has been handled you have the right to appeal. This
information has been designed to help you to understand how to complain
to Humberside Police. Using this process will not affect your right to
complain directly to the Information Commissioner if you feel we have
not complied with our obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.

Who Can Complain?

Anyone who has made a Freedom of Information request in writing to the
Force can complain. If you have requested information and you are not
satisfied with the way we have dealt with it, you can use the complaints
process to have it looked at again. If someone who requested information
would like to complain but cannot do so themselves, you can complain on
their behalf but it will help us if you make it clear that you are doing
so.

What Can I Complain About?

If you are not satisfied with the way we have handled your request, with
the fee we have charged, or with the reasons we have given for refusing
to provide information, you have the right to appeal. You can complain
about the range, amount and format of information we have sent following
a request. You can also complain about the way a request was handled,
for example, the time it took to respond.

How Do I Complain?

To deal with your complaint as quickly as possible, it will help if you
can give us as much information as you can about the original request
made and the reason for your complaint. Please put your complaint in
writing and address it to:

FOI Appeals

Humberside Police Information Compliance Unit

Police Headquarters

Priory Road

Hull HU5 5SF

What Happens To My Complaint?

Once we have enough details to identify the request, we will begin the
review. The Head of The Information Compliance Unit will normally review
your complaint. In the more complex cases a review panel consisting of a
number of senior personnel from the Force will re-examine your
complaint. We aim to complete the review process within three months of
receiving your complaint. Upon completion we will send you the findings.

How Will I Be Notified?

Where we have not followed procedures or have failed to provide
acceptable quality of service, we will apologise and explain what we
will do to ensure this doesn't happen again. If our original decision to
withhold information is over-turned on appeal we will send you the
additional information immediately. If we believe that our original
response was correct we will let you know, and inform you of your
options (see below).

What If I'm Still Not Satisfied?

If we have been unable to resolve your complaint and you are not
satisfied you can approach the office of the Information Commissioner,
who may investigate the matter on your behalf. This option is open to
you at all times, but we will endeavour to address your complaint
initially, as this may lead to a speedier resolution. It is the
Information Commissioner who decides whether to investigate or not. We
will co-operate fully with the Information Commissioner.

If you have any further questions about the complaints process, please
contact the Information Compliance Unit on 01482 578313 or alternatively
you can write to:

Head of Information Compliance Unit

Humberside Police Headquarters

Priory Road

Hull HU5 5SF

Email: [email address]

Requests for a review by the Information Commissioner should be made in
writing directly to:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Phone: 01625 545 700

www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
<outbind://16/www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk>

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Walker,

I write to you in response to your Internal Review request in relation to:

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 Cleveland Police 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 Cleveland Police Police personnel database?

4. Who was responsible for the decision to compare sensitive Personnel
data against Cleveland Polices 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 assessed.

and Humberside Police's subsequent response:

1. Please tell me if the Humberside Police 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 Humberside Police personnel database?

4. Who was responsible for the decision to compare sensitive

personnel

data against Humberside 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 assessed.

Your request for information has now been considered, and on this occasion
Humberside Police will not be supplying the requested information. Please
see below for the exemptions that have been applied, and the rationale
behind them

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Humberside
Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information
is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:

(a) states that fact;

(b) specifies the exemption in question and

(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption
applies.

Section 30(3)- Investigations & Proceedings Conducted by Public
Authorities

The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information
which is (or if it were held by the public authority would be) exempt
information by virtue of subsection (1) or (2). Also -

Section 31(3)- Law Enforcement

(3) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent that,
compliance with section 1(1)(a) would, or would be likely to prejudice any
of the matters mentioned in subsection (1)and -

Section 40 (5)(a)(i) Personal Information

(5) The duty to confirm or deny -

(a) does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were held
by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of
subsection (1), and (b) does not arise in relation to other information if
or to the extent that either-

(i) the giving to a member of the public of the confirmation or denial
that would have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart
from this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles or section
10 of the Data Protection Act 1998 or would do so if the exemptions in
section 33A(1) of that Act were disregarded.

The force can neither confirm nor deny it holds any information in
relation to investigations it may have or have not conducted, which have
not subsequently been placed in the public domain. Not only would this
undermine any current investigation by alerting those who are suspected of
criminal activity, but it may also thwart any such investigation which is
being managed as a covert operation. This in itself would disclose our
tactical options, undermining future operations, but also in this case
potentially disclose personal data of an individual. This is because the
list to which you refer contained the names of individuals. To confirm, or
deny that certain action may or may not have been taken will reveal
whether an individual named was suspected of being employed by the force.
This may not in fact mean they are a member of the BNP but in fact do no
more than simply confirm that we have a member of staff with the same name
as one that appears on the list.

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

Favouring confirmation or denial:

Confirming the existence of information would show that the force
conducted an investigation, which the public would expect.

Against confirmation or denial:

An investigation if unknown could 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.

S31 Law Enforcement

Favouring confirmation or denial:

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.

Against confirmation or denial:

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

Balance of Public Interest

At this time the potential harm to current and future investigations
outweighs any public benefit in knowing if any additional information is,
or is not held. Police Officers and staff are held to public account for
their actions by the misconduct regulations and the force is held to
account for investigating such matters appropriately by Her Majesties
Inspector Of Constabulary, and/or in some cases by the Independent Police
Complaints Commission. There is no further tangible community benefit in
complying with section 1(1)(a) of the Act at this 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.

It may assist you to know that the Police Service would be legally
entitled to process this sensitive personal data anyway, under 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). The grounds for any decision would be that being a member of
the BNP is incompatible with the role of a police officer/police staff and
would be regarded as gross misconduct requiring formal action. This does
not however mean that the force have taken such action at this time.

The exemption(s) applicable to the information are Absolute stating

In accordance with the Act, this letter represents a Refusal Notice for
this particular request. This action cannot be taken as confirmation or
denial that Humberside Police holds the information you have asked for.

I have independently reviewed the Public Interest factors ultimately
favouring the application of NCND put forward previously
and have considered whether the decision to NCND was correctly attributed.

I have noted your PIT considerations and have furthered the original PIT
considerations put forward by Humberside Police with the following points.

(a) Assisting public understanding of an issue that is subject to current
national debate

Humberside Police is not aware of any National debate that the government
should change the law allowing police membership of the BNP.

(b) Enabling a proper debate of issues relating to Data Protection,
Privacy, Freedom of Association, Freedom of Expression and misuse of
Government powers to the detriment of individual rights. We argue that an
informed debate cannot take place without wide availability of all the
relevant information.

All information relating to the barring of police force members from
political party membership is already a matter of public record. This
information can be found in Hansard and media reports of the time when
current Police Regulations were debated in open parliament. The debate
has already been concluded.

(c) Allowing individuals affected adversely in Employment information
which they can refer to in order to challenge discrimination on political
grounds.

(d) Allowing analysis and scrutiny of the effect and implications of a
major policy decision with Human Rights implications

(e) Providing our Union sufficient information to allow us to make
representations on this issue. See Case No A.31/00 relating to the
enforcement of The Open Government Code of Practice on Access to
Government Information enforced by the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

This is particularly important to us as we have members who are or may be
directly affected in their employment.

(f) Providing our Union with information which can be used to see the
practical implications of a limitation on the right of Freedom of
Association. This is important as further restrictions are being
considered. In fact we recently gave evidence to the Smith review
(concerning Education) on this point, amongst others.

(g) Providing information which makes individuals and institutions
accountable for decisions.

Although the Police Federation is not a trade union per se, they and other
staff associations were engaged in internal consultation discussions with
regard the the implementation of the most recent changes to Police
Regulations. It is therefore argued there is little point in this subject
being re - examined.

It is worth noting that there is a legal impediment to membership of a
political party. These restrictions are applicable as below:

RESTRICTIONS ON THE PRIVATE LIFE OF MEMBERS OF POLICE FORCES

1(1) A [1]member of a police force shall at all times abstain from any
activity which is likely to interfere with the impartial discharge of his
duties or which is likely to give rise to the impression amongst members
of the public that it may so interfere.

1(2) A [2]member of a police force shall in particular:-

(a) not take any active part in politics:
(b) not belong to any organisation specified or described in a
determination of the Secretary of State.

Notes:
The Home Secretary has also issued a determination setting out the
specific organisations of which membership is banned. These are;

(a) British National Party
(b) Combat 18
(c) National Front.

I therefore do not feel that there are any further Public Interest Factors
which would override the previous decision to NCND. Therefore on this
occasion the original decision to NCND is upheld.

I draw your attention to your right to make application to the Information
Commissioner's Office if you are dissatisfied with the decision reached
from the internal review in order that it can be determined if your
request has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Yours Sincerely

James Green

Information Compliance Officer

Information Compliance Section

Data Protection & Freedom of Information

* Humberside Police HQ, Priory Road, Hull, HU5 5SF
( Phone: 01482 317099 (ext 1399)
: E-mail: [3][email address]
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show quoted sections

References

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1. http://pnld.westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk/...
http://pnld.westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk/...
2. http://pnld.westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk/...
http://pnld.westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk/...
3. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]