Dear Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland,

Can you provide a the names of all those convicted of rape in Northern Ireland this year please.

Yours faithfully,

Shauna

Info, Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland

Dear Shauna,

I acknowledge receipt of your email below.

Your request will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and a response will issue in due course.

Regards,

PPS FOI Team

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Dear Info,

Have you managed to find the details I had asked for yet?

Yours sincerely,

Shauna Corr

Info, Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland

Ms Corr, I acknowledge receipt of your email below. Your request was received on the 16 December 2019 and will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in which a response requires to be issued within 20 working days. This means the PPS will issue a response on or before 17 January 2020.

For your information convictions are a matter for the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service so you may wish to submit a request to them in the meantime.

Regards,

PPS Information Management Team

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Info, Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland

Shauna @what do they know
Via email

15 January 2020

Our Ref: 1647/19-20

Dear Shauna,

I refer your email dated 13 December 2019 in which you requested information held by the Public Prosecution Service. Your request will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of Information Act creates rights of access for any person making a request for information to a public authority. The rights of access are twofold. First, to be informed by the public authority if it holds information of the description specified in the request, and if that is the case, secondly, to be provided with that information. These rights are subject to important limitations, which are designed to achieve a proper balance between the right to know and considerations of law and policy in the broader public interest.

You had asked for;

"Can you provide the names of all those convicted of rape in Northern Ireland this year please"

Please note that the PPS is not the official holder of the information requested. Convictions are a matter for the Northern Ireland Courts & Tribunal Service however for your convenience please note that our latest official statistics for sexual offences and rape can be found on the PPS website at the link below:
https://www.ppsni.gov.uk/thematic-bullet...

These statistics cover the financial year period 2018/19. Statistics for 2019/20 will be published in the autumn of 2020.

With regard to your request I can confirm that while the PPS holds information which falls within the scope of your request, namely papers relating to cases which resulted in convictions with an offence of rape during 2019, however I have identified that the exemption in section 40 (Personal Information) apply to the information you requested

Section 40(2) - Personal Data Relating To Third Parties

Section 40(2) provides that any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if-
(a) it constitutes personal data which not fall within subsection (1), and
(b) the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.
The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act-
(a) would contravene any of the data protection principles, or
(b) would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were disregarded.

The information you have requested contains both personal data and sensitive personal data. The sensitive personal data consists of personal data relating to the commission of an offence. Personal data can only be released if to do so would not contravene any of the data protection principles set out by Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
Reliance on section 40 does not require a public interest balancing test be carried out to determine whether to withhold or release the requested information.

The PPS also take into account the relevant provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, including Article 2, the Right to Life, when considering the release of personal information into the public domain.

If you are dissatisfied in any way with the handling of your request under the Freedom of Information you have the right to request a review in accordance with our review procedure. In the event that you require a review to be undertaken, you should do this as soon as possible or in any case within two months of the date of this response by writing to the Head of Policy & Information, Public Prosecution Service, Belfast Chambers, 93 Chichester Street, Belfast BT1 3JR or alternatively by sending an e-mail to [email address]. You should state clearly the grounds on which you are requesting the review.
Alternatively, you may wish 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.

Yours Sincerely,

PPS FOI Team

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