FOI 594-24 Missing People for Over 10 Years
Enquiry Reference: 594 - 24
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request, firstly please accept my apology for the delay. Below is your request and our response.
I am writing to request a list of all individuals who have been reported as missing for ten years or longer. This request specifically pertains to cases within your jurisdiction.
Please provide the following information for each missing person:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Date reported missing
- Last known location
- Any available case details or public notices issued regarding the individual
If possible, please provide this information in a digital format (e.g., Excel, CSV).
Having made enquiries within the Force we have seven people who have been missing over 10 years below is the year and area they went missing from.
2000 – Middlesbrough
2000 – Middlesbrough
2002 – Saltburn
2004 – Hartlepool
2004 – Hartlepool
2006 – Hartlepool
2003 – Guisborough
For anything else we would rely on the following:
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 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 the Freedom of Information Act requires that I provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) state (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Cleveland Police can confirm 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 exemption:
Section 40(2) Personal Information
Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption which does not require me to evidence the harm that disclosure would cause and does not require consideration of a public interest test in justification of its use.
On this occasion the information requested is clearly personal information and contravene the first principle of the General Data Protection Regulation 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’), what are the likely expectations of the data subjects, in that would they expect Cleveland Police to release to the world personal details since release of information under The Freedom of Information Act 2000, is a 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 Sections 40.
In accordance with Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this notification acts as a Refusal Notice to this section of your request.
Please note that all 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 Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) 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. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Decision Maker