Trigger of police investigation into Downing St parties

The request was successful.

Dear Metropolitan Police Service (MPS),

For weeks the MPS refused to investigate potential criminal activity inside the Downing Street parties.

FoI request: We would like to know what changed in order to finally prompt an investigation by the MPS. For instance was it the media reports that MET police provided 'extremely damning partygate statements' to Sue Gray? Perhaps someone at the MPS thought 'that looks pretty bad so we had better investigate too'? We believe whatever it was should be made public to give everyone an idea of what it takes to trigger an investigation.

Yours faithfully,

Amanda Hart
for Stop UK lies and Corruption.

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)

Thank you for your email to the Metropolitan Police Service Data Office.

 

Please note the Data Office Triage Team operate Monday to Friday only,
this department is closed during bank holidays.

A response will follow in due course.

 

We do receive a very high volume of requests and although we endeavour to
respond to all of them as quickly as possible, there may, at times, be a
few days turnaround time, should that be the case with regards to
responding to your email, we do respectfully ask you to bear with us while
we clear all the emails we received prior to yours.

 

The following applications are currently processed through the Data Office
Triage Team mailbox:

 

• Right of Access Requests (Formerly Subject Access Requests)

 

• Freedom of Information Act Requests

 

• Association of British Insurers/NPCC Memorandum of Understanding
requests

 

• Right to Erasure and Right to Rectification Requests

 

• Requests under the Environmental Information Regulations 2000 (EIR)

 

 

Please visit www.met.police.uk for enquiries relating to:

 

I.            Road Traffic Collisions,

II.           Sarah’s Law – Registered sex offender data

III.          Clare’s Law – Domestic violence offender data

IV.         Disclosures for family court proceedings

V.           Publication Scheme and statistics

NOTICE - This email and any attachments are solely for the intended
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error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Do not
use, copy or disclose the information contained in this email or in any
attachment without the permission of the sender. Metropolitan Police
Service (MPS) communication systems are monitored to the extent permitted
by law and any email and/or attachments may be read by monitoring staff.
Only specified personnel are authorised to conclude binding agreements on
behalf of the MPS by email and no responsibility is accepted for
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precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this
email, its security and that of any attachments cannot be guaranteed.

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)

1 Attachment

Good morning,

Please refer to the attached response letter in relation to your recent information request.

Your reference is 01/FOI/22/023044.

Kind regards,

Data Office Triage Team
Information Rights Unit
Data Office
Metropolitan Police Service
[email address]
PO Box 313, Sidcup, DA15 0HH

show quoted sections

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Hart,

 

Please find attached response to your request for information, with our
sincere apologies for the delay and for any inconvenience caused.

 

Kind regards,

 

Suzanne Mason, MIB

Information Manager

Metropolitan Police Service

Email: [1][email address]

Core Location: New Peel House, Hendon

 

 

 [2]E83F72E7

 

 

NOTICE - This email and any attachments are solely for the intended
recipient and may be confidential. If you have received this email in
error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Do not
use, copy or disclose the information contained in this email or in any
attachment without the permission of the sender. Metropolitan Police
Service (MPS) communication systems are monitored to the extent permitted
by law and any email and/or attachments may be read by monitoring staff.
Only specified personnel are authorised to conclude binding agreements on
behalf of the MPS by email and no responsibility is accepted for
unauthorised agreements reached with other personnel. While reasonable
precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this
email, its security and that of any attachments cannot be guaranteed.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Metropolitan Police Service (MPS),

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)'s handling of my FOI request 'Trigger of police investigation into Downing St parties'.

We acknowledge your response seeking to hide the information we seek from the public view. However given the fact that on December 18 in 2020, a staff member pressed a silent security alarm in No 10 by accident and the police officer who responded to that call witnessed 50 people having a party in breach of lockdown regulations yet didn't see fit to arrest any person is rather suspicious and the public would naturally conclude that these people are being treated differently to the ones who were arrested for breaching lockdown regulations where they were being enforced by the police in those respective areas. While we accept there will be some information in this matter will be sensitive there will be other parts which you can obviously release to give the public an indication of what finally triggered an investigation on your part. We are not asking for names or any other identifiable information. We are merely asking for information held which triggered the investigation - for instance people partying too close to each other. The purpose of this information is to give the public an overall idea of what level of potential law breaking must occur in Downing Street before those whose job it is to enforce the law decide something needs to be done about it. This is because it looked very much like the MPS were treating these people as if they were exempt from these laws and that would never do. We also think the Information Commissioner is better placed to decide what is and is not in the public interest as she is neutral.

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

Yours faithfully,

Amanda Hart
for Stop UK lies and Corruption

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)

Thank you for your email to the Metropolitan Police Service Data Office.

 

Please note the Data Office Triage Team operate Monday to Friday only,
this department is closed during bank holidays.

A response will follow in due course.

 

We do receive a very high volume of requests and although we endeavour to
respond to all of them as quickly as possible, there may, at times, be a
few days turnaround time, should that be the case with regards to
responding to your email, we do respectfully ask you to bear with us while
we clear all the emails we received prior to yours.

 

The following applications are currently processed through the Data Office
Triage Team mailbox:

 

• Right of Access Requests (Formerly Subject Access Requests)

 

• Freedom of Information Act Requests

 

• Association of British Insurers/NPCC Memorandum of Understanding
requests

 

• Right to Erasure and Right to Rectification Requests

 

• Requests under the Environmental Information Regulations 2000 (EIR)

 

 

Please visit www.met.police.uk for enquiries relating to:

 

I.            Road Traffic Collisions,

II.           Sarah’s Law – Registered sex offender data

III.          Clare’s Law – Domestic violence offender data

IV.         Disclosures for family court proceedings

V.           Publication Scheme and statistics

NOTICE - This email and any attachments are solely for the intended
recipient and may be confidential. If you have received this email in
error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Do not
use, copy or disclose the information contained in this email or in any
attachment without the permission of the sender. Metropolitan Police
Service (MPS) communication systems are monitored to the extent permitted
by law and any email and/or attachments may be read by monitoring staff.
Only specified personnel are authorised to conclude binding agreements on
behalf of the MPS by email and no responsibility is accepted for
unauthorised agreements reached with other personnel. While reasonable
precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this
email, its security and that of any attachments cannot be guaranteed.

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)

1 Attachment

Good morning,

Please refer to the attached response letter in relation to your internal review request.

Your new case reference number for your internal review is: 01/FOI/22/023570.

Kind regards

Data Office Triage Team
Triage Officer
Information Rights Unit
Data Office
Metropolitan Police Service
[email address]
PO Box 313, Sidcup, DA15 0HH

show quoted sections

Cyclops on behalf of Yvette Taylor, Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)

2 Attachments

 

      Official

 

Information Rights Unit
PO Box 313
Sidcup
DA15 0HH

 

Email: [1][The Met request email]

 

[2]www.met.police.uk

 

Your ref: 
Our ref: 01/FOI/22/023570

 

21/03/2022

 

 

 
 

 

Dear Ms. Hart

 

Freedom of Information Request Reference No: 01/FOI/22/023570

 

Please see the attached in respect of your Freedom of Information request
referenced above.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Yvette Taylor

 

 

      Official

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[The Met request email]
2. http://www.met.police.uk/

Dear Cyclops on behalf of Yvette Taylor,

Thanks for your internal review to 01/FOI/22/023570. Respectfully we are clearly asking for *recorded* information regardless of whether it could be interpreted as an "opinion".

For the reasons outlined in our request for an internal review, there is an enormous public interest in the release of the information requested. I'm afraid the link you have provided is not what we asked for. We shall therefore ask the Information Commissioner to investigate.

Yours sincerely,

Amanda Hart
for Stop UK lies and Corruption.

Amanda Hart left an annotation ()

In ICO hands.

Amanda Hart left an annotation ()

ICO ref: IC-162181-G8K8

Dave Farthing left an annotation ()

This should be interesting.

Amanda Hart left an annotation ()

The MPS have provided us with further information via the ICO.

Transcript of Commissioner’s opening statement at the Police and Crime Committee -
25/01/22: https://d.pr/f/CYLPWq

Letter from the MPS to the Mayor of London dated 26th May 2022: https://d.pr/f/bJz0lw

We informed the ICO that while the content is much appreciated it still falls short of what we asked for. We have requested that that ICO takes possession of the information held and for her to makes her own determination on what may be released (if anything).

Amanda Hart left an annotation ()

The ICO has today relayed this letter to us from the MPS which we consider resolves the outstanding elements of our request
https://d.pr/i/y3JmnS