First Names of People Charged with Crimes in Cleveland

The request was successful.

Dear Cleveland Police,

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would like to request the first names of anyone charged with a crime within the 2019/2020 financial year. Specifically, I would like the first, given name of people charged within your police force area during this time period.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or require further clarification.

Yours faithfully,

Katie Swann

Freedom of Information, Cleveland Police

This mailbox is for Freedom of Information requests only and all other
mail will be deleted unactioned.

 

For Legal please forward your e-mail to
[1][email address] and for Subject Access please
check the Subject Access section of the Cleveland Police website under the
heading of ‘Advice and Information’ or forward your e-mail to
[2][email address] for all other
enquiries please contact Cleveland Police via 101.

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]

Freedom of Information, Cleveland Police

Dear Ms Swann,

Enquiry Ref: 12630/2021

I acknowledge receipt of your request for information dated 15th February 2021.

As set out by the Freedom of Information Act it will be our aim to respond to your request within 20 working days that is by 15th March 2021. In some cases, however, we may be unable to achieve this deadline and would hope to contact you should this be the case.

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances delays may be unavoidable. We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to process your request as quickly as is practicable.

Please note the ‘working day’ is defined as any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, or a day which is a bank holiday in any part of the United Kingdom. The first reckonable day is the first working day after receipt.

If you have any questions regarding your request please contact this office.

Yours sincerely,

Ms E McGuigan
Freedom of Information Decision Maker
Directorate of Standards and Ethics
Cleveland Community Safety Hub | 1 Cliffland Way | Hemlington | TS8 9GL
E-mail: [email address]

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

       
Public Service | Transparency | Impartiality | Integrity

“Delivering outstanding policing for our communities”

Please do not use social media or email to report crime as we do not monitor these accounts 24/7. Dial 999 in an emergency or visit the contact us section of our website for all reporting options.

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information, Cleveland Police

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Swann,

Enquiry Ref: 12630/2021

I write in connection with your request for information dated 15th February 2021 and received by this office on that date. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying, your patience is appreciated. Below are the questions raised in your request and all of the information we have been able to retrieve.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would like to request the first names of anyone charged with a crime within the 2019/2020 financial year. Specifically, I would like the first, given name of people charged within your police force area during this time period.
a) We have attached a document that contains a list of the first names of persons arrested within the specified period however I must advise you that some names may appear only once but be due to errors or anomalies in the spelling and some have been removed in accordance with the below exemption.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 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.
Cleveland Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds information pertinent to this request as the duty in Section 1(1) (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 40 Personal Information
Section 40 is an absolute exemption, which means that the legislators have identified that harm would be caused by any release. In addition there is no requirement to consider the public interest test.
By way of explanation to you I would point out the following: Under subsection 2 of Section 40 of The Freedom of Information Act, information is exempt information if it constitutes personal information of which the applicant is not the data subject. In order to be considered exempt personal information, the information must satisfy one of two conditions. It must either be information which would be exempt from disclosure to the data subject under the provisions of the Data Protection Act (General Data Protection Regulation) 2018, or disclosure of the information would contravene any of the Data Protection Principles or cause damage or distress to the data subject.

On this occasion the information requested, first names of persons arrested, some of which may be unique or unusual, is clearly personal information and would contravene the first principle of the Data protection Act 2018 (GDPR) - Article 5(1) requires that personal data shall be:
(a) processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’) that is what are the likely expectations of the data subjects, in that would they expect the Cleveland Police to release personal details to the world, since release of information under The Freedom of Information Act 2000, is release to the world at large and not just to the individual applicant and as such I believe to do so would amount to unfair processing and hence therefore is exempt under Section 40(2)(a).

Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is a class based and absolute exemption. This indicates that the legislators when writing this piece of legislation considered that the release of this type of information would cause harm to either the authority or the individuals involved.

Please note any statistical data supplied in relation to Freedom of Information requests is a snapshot of data held at the time the request was received by the Freedom of Information office and is subject to constant change/updates.

The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.

If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The APP College of Policing guidance states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced.

We have made every effort to ensure a response was provided within statutory deadlines, however due to current circumstances delays have been unavoidable. If your response was late we apologise for any inconvenience it may have caused and thank you for your patience. If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact this office.

Yours sincerely,

Ms E McGuigan
Freedom of Information Decision Maker
Directorate of Standards and Ethics
Cleveland Community Safety Hub | 1 Cliffland Way | Hemlington | TS8 9GL
E-mail: [email address]

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

       
Public Service | Transparency | Impartiality | Integrity

“Delivering outstanding policing for our communities”

Please do not use social media or email to report crime as we do not monitor these accounts 24/7. Dial 999 in an emergency or visit the contact us section of our website for all reporting options.

show quoted sections