Hate Crime Statistics

MJ Lugsdin made this Freedom of Information request to Essex Police Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Essex Police,

Please provide the following information in respect of every full year from January 1st 2018 onwards.

1. The total number of hate crimes recorded by the Constabulary, broken down by individual ‘hate’ characteristics (e.g. Race, disability etc.)

2. With respect to crimes that were so recorded due to the hate element being related to ‘gender identity’, ‘gender reassignment’ or ‘transphobia’(or whichever similar term the Force may use) please provide a detailed breakdown of the specific crimes involved e.g. rape, murder, assault, harassment etc.)

3. The total number of non-crime hate incidents recorded, similarly broken down as per question 1.

4. With respect to non-crime hate incidents that were so recorded due to the hate element being related to ‘gender identity’, ‘gender reassignment’ or ‘transphobia’(or whichever similar term the Force may use) please provide a detailed breakdown of the specific type of incident involved.

Yours faithfully,

Martin J Lugsdin

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

Thank you for your communication, your enquiry will be dealt with within
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public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.  

  

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
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Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

1 Attachment

Thank you for your request for information, which has been logged under
the above reference number.     

  

Essex Police will endeavor to respond to your application within 20
working days, as set out within the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA). If a time extension is to be applied to your request, you will be
informed; the reason for the extension will also be provided.     

  

Please note that Essex Police may refuse detailed or multiple requests
that are submitted at the same time, as per [1]Section 14 of the FOIA.
Furthermore, if the information sought is already publicly available, you
may be redirected to our publication scheme:
[2]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac... or other
official links, such as the [3]PFCC, [4]Home Office or the [5]Office for
National Statistics  

   

Should you need to contact us whilst your information request is being
processed, please email [6][Essex Police request email], quoting
the above reference, and a member of the team will assist.    

  

Kind regards,

  

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police 

Telephone: 101 | Email: [7][Essex Police request email] 

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA   

  

For more information about your information rights, or how Essex Police
use your personal data please visit our Privacy Notice via the Essex
Police website
[8]https://www.essex.police.uk/hyg/fpnessex...

  

 

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

2 Attachments

Thank you for your Freedom of information (FOI) request logged under the
above reference.  

   

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public
authorities:    

   

Unless exemptions apply, the first duty (at [1]Section 1(1)(a) is to
confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held.   

The second duty (at [2]Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has
been confirmed as being held.    

However, where exemptions are relied upon ([3]Section 17 of FOIA), there
is a requirement to provide the applicant with an explanation either:  

a) stating the fact   

b) detailing the exemption(s) in question and  

c) why the exemption applies (if not apparent).  

   

Information Request  

Please provide the following information in respect of every full year
from January 1st 2018 onwards.

1. The total number of hate crimes recorded by the Constabulary, broken
down by individual ‘hate’ characteristics (e.g. Race, disability etc.)

2. With respect to crimes that were so recorded due to the hate element
being related to ‘gender identity’, ‘gender reassignment’ or
‘transphobia’(or whichever similar term the Force may use) please provide
a detailed breakdown of the specific crimes involved e.g. rape, murder,
assault, harassment etc.)

3. The total number of non-crime hate incidents recorded, similarly broken
down as per question 1.

4. With respect to non-crime hate incidents that were so recorded due to
the hate element being related to ‘gender identity’, ‘gender reassignment’
or ‘transphobia’(or whichever similar term the Force may use) please
provide a detailed breakdown of the specific type of incident involved.

 

FOI Duty  

First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your
request 

Second Duty – See below 

Fact - It is not possible to extract and verify all the data in your
request 

Exemption - [4]Section 12(1) 

Refusal - [5]Section 17(5) of FOIA 

S12(1

 

Reasoning – In respect of Questions 2 & 4, Essex Police are unable to
currently report on the detailed breakdown of hate crimes or non-hate
crimes by specific crime involved, this is not held in an extractable
format at the moment.

 

Each relevant Hate Crime and Non-Hate Crime record would need to be
reviewed, which would take approximately 20 minutes per record to
establish the facts, that is to say whether or not a specific crime was
involved other than Hate e.g. rape, murder, assault, harassment.  If the
investigation file included such an offence the crime would have been
reported under that main offence and not necessarily under Hate or
Non-Hate – this would take considerable resource to achieve and,
therefore, is regarded as excessive and would exceed the time and cost
limits under the Act.

 

Duty to assist – When refusing a request on cost ([6]Section 12(1)/12(2),
outside of the act and in effort to assist we can provide the following

 

Essex Police can report as follows:

 

Caveat: The data is correct as at 18/01/2021.

 

The following data is for a previous FOI which was disclosed on this
similar subject and includes the time frame 2016 to 2020. 

 

Notes:

Some incidents were not designated to one specific hate incident type
group, instead they involved multiple hate motivating factors. Such
incidents have been allocated to the category: ‘Multiple hate incident
types.’

 

The results include both crime and non-crime hate incidents

.

Dates Period: 1^st January 2016 to 31^st December 2020

 

Please find below the crime statistics in the below table:

 

Hate Incidents - January 2016 to December 2020
Number of hate Yearly hate
Year Hate Incident Category incidents incidents
Multiple hate Incident types 44
Hate Incident - Age 1
Hate Incident - Disability 238
Hate Incident - Homophobic 222
Hate Incident - Racial 1706
Hate Incident - Religious 33
Hate Incident - Religious - Buddhist 1
Hate Incident - Religious -
2016 Christian 4 2359
Hate Incident - Religious - Hindu 1
Hate Incident - Religious - Jewish 28
Hate Incident - Religious - Muslim 27
Hate Incident - Religious - No
religion 2
Hate Incident - Religious - Other 2
Hate Incident - Religious - Sikh 1
Hate Incident - Religious - Unknown 6
Hate Incident - Transgender 43
Multiple hate Incident types 47
Hate Incident - Age 2
Hate Incident - Disability 317
Hate Incident - Homophobic 282
Hate Incident - Racial 1722
Hate Incident - Religious 7
Hate Incident - Religious -
Christian 11
2017 Hate Incident - Religious - Hindu 1 2639
Hate Incident - Religious - Jewish 42
Hate Incident - Religious - Muslim 101
Hate Incident - Religious - No
religion 8
Hate Incident - Religious - Other 1
Hate Incident - Religious - Sikh 1
Hate Incident - Religious - Unknown 3
Hate Incident - Transgender 94
Multiple hate Incident types 74
Hate Incident - Age 3
Hate Incident - Disability 381
Hate Incident - Homophobic 342
Hate Incident - Racial 1992
Hate Incident - Religious -
Christian 10
2018 Hate Incident - Religious - Hindu 1 3071
Hate Incident - Religious - Jewish 70
Hate Incident - Religious - Muslim 79
Hate Incident - Religious - No
religion 1
Hate Incident - Religious - Other 8
Hate Incident - Religious - Sikh 2
Hate Incident - Religious - Unknown 13
Hate Incident - Transgender 95
Multiple hate Incident types 87
Hate Incident - Age 1
Hate Incident - Alternative
Sub-culture 3
Hate Incident - Disability 439
Hate Incident - Homophobic 448
Hate Incident - Racial 2166
Hate Incident - Religious -
2019 Christian 4 3435
Hate Incident - Religious - Jewish 73
Hate Incident - Religious - Muslim 79
Hate Incident - Religious - No
religion 1
Hate Incident - Religious - Other 19
Hate Incident - Religious - Sikh 3
Hate Incident - Religious - Unknown 10
Hate Incident - Transgender 102
Multiple hate Incident types 92
Hate Incident - Age 7
Hate Incident - Alternative
Sub-culture 12
Hate Incident - Disability 520
Hate Incident - Homophobic 498
Hate Incident - Racial 2602
2020 Hate Incident - Religious - 3970
Christian 7
Hate Incident - Religious - Hindu 3
Hate Incident - Religious - Jewish 57
Hate Incident - Religious - Muslim 60
Hate Incident - Religious - Other 9
Hate Incident - Religious - Sikh 1
Hate Incident - Religious - Unknown 10
Hate Incident - Transgender 92
Total 15,474

 

Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is
accurate and complete.  However, Essex Police systems are designed
primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes
of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries.  Please note although
data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the
results may be subject to inaccuracies.  Care should be taken to
understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use
of the data.

 

Please note that Essex Police publish their Hate Crime data annually
through the Home Office alongside all other UK Police Forces, this is
available below and searches can be made for each year of interest on this
website by selecting the Hate Crime, England and Wales: Appendix Tables.

[7]Hate crime, England and Wales, 2020 to 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 

Our publication scheme is constantly updated as and when new data becomes
available, please review this link below for articles related to Hate
Crime:

[8]Published items | Essex Police

In particular, the following article includes data up to August 2021:

[9]Hate Crimes/Incidents 2018-2021 | Essex Police

 

Please note the above request will be included within our [10]Publication
Scheme.  

   

Essex Police trusts that the links and information provided is of
assistance.  Thank you for your interest in Essex Police.   

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police 

Telephone: 101 | Email: [11][Essex Police request email] 

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA   

  

For more information about your information rights, or how Essex Police
use your personal data please visit our Privacy Notice via the Essex
Police website
[12]https://www.essex.police.uk/hyg/fpnessex...

  

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information. Please visit this area of our website
before submitting FOI requests as information may already be available.
[13]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

 

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request, please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests: [14]How to access
information from a public body | ICO 

  

Your right to complain 

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.  

 

Under [15]Section 17(7)(a)(b) FOIA complaints should be submitted within
20 working days from the date of this response and should be addressed to
the Information Rights Manager at the above address or by email to:
[16][Essex Police request email] 

  

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days. Please explain which aspect of the
disclosure you are not satisfied with, and if your complaint concerns the
decision to apply an exemption, please specify if you wish an internal
review to take place and why you believe the exemption does not apply.  

  

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under the [17]Section 50 FOIA  to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police. 

  

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [18]Home | ICO

 

 

 

From: Info Rights Freedom Essex
Sent: 26 August 2022 15:27
To: MJ Lugsdin <[FOI #890759 email]>
Subject: FOI 17454 - Hate Crime & Non Crime Hate Incidents Related to
Gender Identity

 

Thank you for your request for information, which has been logged under
the above reference number.     

  

Essex Police will endeavor to respond to your application within 20
working days, as set out within the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA). If a time extension is to be applied to your request, you will be
informed; the reason for the extension will also be provided.     

  

Please note that Essex Police may refuse detailed or multiple requests
that are submitted at the same time, as per [19]Section 14 of the FOIA.
Furthermore, if the information sought is already publicly available, you
may be redirected to our publication scheme:
[20]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac... or other
official links, such as the [21]PFCC, [22]Home Office or the [23]Office
for National Statistics  

   

Should you need to contact us whilst your information request is being
processed, please email [24][Essex Police request email], quoting
the above reference, and a member of the team will assist.    

  

Kind regards,

  

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police 

Telephone: 101 | Email: [25][Essex Police request email] 

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA   

  

For more information about your information rights, or how Essex Police
use your personal data please visit our Privacy Notice via the Essex
Police website
[26]https://www.essex.police.uk/hyg/fpnessex...

  

 

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear Essex Police,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Essex Police's handling of my FOI request 'Hate Crime Statistics'.

This is an abysmal attempt at complying with your duties under the FOI Act. Firstly, even the information that has been supplied does not cover the time frame requested - it begins 2 years earlier (2016 instead of 2018) and end in December 2020, thus excluding the whole of 2021 and 2022 to date.

This is information that you are required to supply to the Home Office. I do not accept that you do not collect the data requested in a format that is easily accessible and transmissible.

The information that HAS been supplied is, in part, incomprehensible and it is clear that no care was taken in its compilation.

Incompetent storage and retrieval systems are not an appropriate means of denying access to information and merely give the impression of a lack of transparency. Given that you have had to respond to a similar request some time ago, it is unreasonable that you have made no changes to your systems.

It seems obvious that no real effort has been put into complying with my request, it being clear that you have considered it sufficient to try to fob me off with an out of date response to an earlier FOI request by someone else.

[ GIVE DETAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPLAINT HERE ]

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/h...

Yours faithfully,

MJ Lugsdin

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

1 Attachment

Essex Police is in receipt of your complaint to FOI request 17454
regarding Hate Crime & Non-Crime Hate Incidents Related to Gender
Identity.

 

Essex Police will conduct a review as requested.  

 

As you will be aware the Information Commissioner's guidance for reviews
held under Section 50 of the Act is that they should be completed
within twenty working days of receipt of the complaint (unless exceptional
circumstances arise in which case the authority may extend the deadline by
a further twenty days) this will give a deadline of the 11/11/2022.

 

As advised in our reply if you are not content with the outcome of the
review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted
at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or via [1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/ 

 

We will write again by that date. 

 

Kind regards 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [2][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA 

 

For more information about your information rights, or how Essex Police
use your personal data please visit our Privacy Notice via the Essex
Police website [3]https://www.essex.police.uk/hyg/fpnessex...

 

 

show quoted sections

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

2 Attachments

Thank you for your Internal Review request logged under the above
reference. 

 

Thank you for your patience in regard to your internal review request, we
must firstly apologise for the lack of updates from this department. The
department has struggled with resourcing and workload, therefore the level
of service provided has been below what is expected consequently we have
failed to meet the guidelines indicated under Part VI of Section 45 Code
of Practice which suggests that an internal review should be provided
within 20 days.

 

I have made further enquiries please see the revised response as below.  

 

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public
authorities:   

  

Unless exemptions apply, the first duty (at [1]Section 1(1)(a)) is to
confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held.  

The second duty (at [2]Section 1(1)(b)) is to disclose information that
has been confirmed as being held.   

  

However, where exemptions are relied upon ( [3]Section 17(1)) there is a
requirement to provide the applicant with an explanation either: 

a) stating the fact  

b) detailing the exemption(s) in question and 

c) why the exemption applies (if not apparent).   

 

Original Information Request 

Year breakdown from 1st Jan 2018 to date

 

1. The total number of hate crimes recorded by the Constabulary, broken
down by individual ‘hate’ characteristics (e.g. Race, disability etc.)
2. With respect to crimes that were so recorded due to the hate element
being related to ‘gender identity’, ‘gender reassignment’ or
‘transphobia’(or whichever similar term the Force may use) please provide
a detailed breakdown of the specific crimes involved e.g. rape, murder,
assault, harassment etc.)
3. The total number of non-crime hate incidents recorded, similarly broken
down as per question 1.
4. With respect to non-crime hate incidents that were so recorded due to
the hate element being related to ‘gender identity’, ‘gender reassignment’
or ‘transphobia’(or whichever similar term the Force may use) please
provide a detailed breakdown of the specific type of incident involved.

 

FOI Duty  

First Duty – Essex Police does hold information relating to your request.

Second Duty – Please see below

Fact – General breakdown of specific incidents types provided, if a more
detailed summary is required this likely to take excessive time to redact
details. If you do wish to obtain this please narrow your scope within a
new FOI submission to a specific offence type.

Exemption – Not applicable

 

Hate Investigations 01/01/2018 to 14/11/2022
Type CRIME NONCRIME Grand Total
Hate Incident - Age 31 4 35
Hate Incident - Alternative Sub-culture 28 8 36
Hate Incident - Disability 2,396 350 2,746
Hate Incident - Homophobic 2,245 296 2,541
Hate Incident - Racial 10,901 1,880 12,781
Hate Incident - Religious - Buddhist 2   2
Hate Incident - Religious - Christian 42 10 52
Hate Incident - Religious - Hindu 5 1 6
Hate Incident - Religious - Jewish 323 84 407
Hate Incident - Religious - Muslim 245 68 313
Hate Incident - Religious - No religion 4 2 6
Hate Incident - Religious - Other 52 13 65
Hate Incident - Religious - Sikh 8   8
Hate Incident - Religious - Unknown 47 9 56
Hate Incident - Transgender 460 108 568
Multiple Hate Strands 517 81 598
Grand Total 17,306 2,914 20,220

 

Hate Investigations 01/01/2018 to 14/11/2022 Transgender
Offence CRIME NONCRIME Grand Total
ALL OTHER THEFT OFFENCES 2   2
CRIMINAL DAMAGE 9   9
MISC CRIMES AGAINST SOCIETY 1   1
NON-CRIME   108 108
OTHER SEXUAL OFFENCES 9   9
PUBLIC ORDER OFFENCES 137   137
ROBBERY - PERSONAL 1   1
VIOLENCE WITH INJURY 30   30
VIOLENCE WITHOUT INJURY 271   271
Grand Total 460 108 568

 

Thank you for your interest in Essex Police.   

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police 

Telephone: 101 | Email: [4][Essex Police request email] 

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA   

  

For more information about your information rights, or how Essex Police
use your personal data please visit our Privacy Notice via the Essex
Police website
[5]https://www.essex.police.uk/hyg/fpnessex...

  

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information. Please visit this area of our website
before submitting FOI requests as information may already be available.
[6]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

 

If you wish to contact the ICO or understand how to submit a valid FOI
request, please visit the Commissioner’s website: [7]How to access
information from a public body | ICO 

  

Your right to complain 

 

If you feel your FOI request has not been properly handled, you have the
right to complain.  Please explain the specific aspects with which you are
dissatisfied.

 

Under [8]Section 17(7)(a)(b) FOIA complaints should be submitted within 20
working days from the date of this response and should be addressed to the
Information Rights Manager at the above address or by email to:
[9][Essex Police request email] 

 

 

 

 

From: Info Rights Freedom Essex
Sent: 17 October 2022 15:48
To: MJ Lugsdin <[FOI #890759 email]>
Subject: FOI 17454 Hate Crime & Non-Crime Hate Incidents Related to Gender
Identity

 

Essex Police is in receipt of your complaint to FOI request 17454
regarding Hate Crime & Non-Crime Hate Incidents Related to Gender
Identity.

 

Essex Police will conduct a review as requested.  

 

As you will be aware the Information Commissioner's guidance for reviews
held under Section 50 of the Act is that they should be completed
within twenty working days of receipt of the complaint (unless exceptional
circumstances arise in which case the authority may extend the deadline by
a further twenty days) this will give a deadline of the 11/11/2022.

 

As advised in our reply if you are not content with the outcome of the
review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted
at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or via [10]http://www.ico.gov.uk/ 

 

We will write again by that date. 

 

Kind regards 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [11][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA 

 

For more information about your information rights, or how Essex Police
use your personal data please visit our Privacy Notice via the Essex
Police website
[12]https://www.essex.police.uk/hyg/fpnessex...

 

 

show quoted sections

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Daily Telegraph 15/4/23:

College of Policing accused of watering down Suella Braverman’s free speech charter

'Some 120,000 people had NCHIs recorded against them between 2014 and 2019, including children. They show up in background checks when applying for certain jobs, such as a teacher.
...

Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “The intention of the Home Secretary could not be clearer: she wants officers to stop policing our tweets and start policing our streets. But the College of Policing, which is an unelected quango, seems determined to thwart her and has given it a woke spin.”'

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/co...

The Rt Hon Chris Philp MP 13/4/23:

'We are also making clear frivolous allegations of criminal offences should not be recorded as a criminal offence unless a criminal threshold has clearly been met. We don’t think being rude or insulting is a police matter. Officers are not the thought police. And where something is reported and it doesn’t meet that clear criminal threshold, we don’t want that being investigated or to be recorded as a crime, we don’t want to waste police time on that kind of thing. We will very shortly be publishing guidance clarifying where that threshold should sit.'

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/c...

Non-Crime Hate Incidents Draft Code of Practice on the Recording and Retention of Personal Data

Statement by Chris Philp on 13 March 2023

'The code emphasises the importance of free speech with case studies that are designed to assist the police in considering how the right to freedom of expression should be taken into consideration. The code clarifies that debate, humour, satire and personally-held views which are lawfully expressed are not, by themselves, grounds for the recording of a non-crime hate incident. Furthermore, the code sets out that a non-crime hate incident should not be recorded if the report is deemed by the police to be trivial, irrational, malicious, or if there is no basis to conclude that it was motivated by intentional hostility.'

https://questions-statements.parliament....

Non-crime hate incidents: draft code of practice
Published 13 March 2023

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

Daily Mail:

'Police must prioritise freedom of speech over people taking offence under long-awaited rules unveiled today.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Miller v The College of Policing [2021] EWCA Civ 1926

"117. ...The net for non-crime hate speech is an exceptionally wide one ...There is no provision for proportionality to be applied to recording. And the Guidance says nothing about the language to be used in any such record, or whether someone should be notified that a record, flagged as a hate incident has been made of a complaint against them, leaving such issues to individual forces to decide."

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ...