Freedom of Information Request 528/21
Response date: 29th June 2021
1. Un
der what policy, protocol or procedure is it acceptable or standard operational procedure during an internal
investi
gation not to inform the officer accused that an allegation of misconduct has been made?
2. Un
der what policy, protocol or procedure is it acceptable or standard operational procedure during an internal
investi
gation *not* to interview the officer accused but to carry out a "full investigation" and issue a report detailing the
outcom e decision without making an officer aware that any misconduct al egation has been made?
3. Pleas e provide copies of the policies, protocols and procedures held within your force for the purpose of
investi
gating multiple and repeated data breaches.
4. Pleas e provide copies of the policies, protocols and procedures held within your force for the misuse of police
databas es by any force member/employee for non-professional personal purposes.
5. Pleas e provide copies of the policies, protocols and procedures held within your force for obtaining access to
historic/ archived data not held on the current police mainframe used for current operational purposes.
RESPO NSE
South W ales Police is committed to investigating all al egations of misconduct and robustly pursue al egations of
wrongdoi ng, including corruption. It should be noted that the vast majority of staff work extremely hard to ‘Keep South
Wales S afe’ but on occasions, the actions of a few tarnish the professional reputation of the organisation. South Wales
Police pr ovide extensive training and advice to police officers and police staff around issues of dishonesty, unethical
behaviour and corruption and have an integrity hotline, which allows the confidential reporting of wrongdoing. South
Wales P olice wil continue to develop a culture in which reporting wrongdoing and corruption is viewed as doing the
right thi ng and will continue take a proactive and positive lead on all such matters.
We cons ulted with our Policy Unit, Professional Standards Department and Data Protection Officer who provided the
informati on to answer your request.
Questio ns 1 and 2
This infor mation is available in the public domain and we are therefore not obliged to provide this information as the
following exemption applies:
Section 21 – Information Accessible by Other Means
This is an absolute, class based exemption which means that a public authority is not required to consider the public
interest i n disclosure.
Continued….
THIS IN
FORMATION HAS BEEN PROVIDED IN RESPONSE TO A REQUEST UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000, AND IS CORRECT
All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanica l, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the South Wales Police.
Freedom of Information Request 528/21
The Pol ice (conduct) Regulations 2020, paragraph 6, relates to the ‘harm test’ which outlines certain circumstances
where it may not be appropriate to provide certain information to an officer. In addition, Paragraph 23(7) reaffirms the
principl
es of the harm test.
Under
Section 16, the duty to provide advice and assistance, please see the below link:
The Pol ice (Conduct) Regulations 2020 (legislation.gov.uk)
Questio ns 3 – 5
Pleas
e see the attached document entitled ‘20211501 Data Incident Management Procedure Final V1’.
Inform
ation appertaining to the Data Protection Officer has been redacted from the document.
The foll owing exemption applies:
Section 40 (2) - Personal Information
Section 40(2) is an absolute class based exemption and therefore the authority is not required to consider the public
interest in disclosure.
The Dat a Protection Act covers processing of personal data about a living individual. Personal data means data which
relate t
o a living individual who can be identified-
(a) from those data, or
(b) from those data and other information which is in the
possession of, or is likely to come into
the possession of,
the data control er or any other person in respect of the individual.
Inform
ation wil “relate to” a person if it is about them, linked to them, has some biographical significance for them, is
used to inform decisions affecting them, has them as its main focus or impacts on them in any way.
In accor dance with the Act, this letter represents a refusal notice for your request.
T
HIS IN
FORMATION HAS BEEN PROVIDED IN RESPONSE TO A REQUEST UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000, AND IS CORRECT
All right
s reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanica
l, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the South Wales Police.