FOI 641-24 Call Outs to Hostel
Enquiry Reference: 641 - 24
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request. Below is your request and our response.
I wish to be sent information on the number of police call outs to New Walk cic, 28 Park Road North, Middlesbrough, TS1 3LF. I require this information to speak to Middlesbrough Council about the amount of crime that links to this hostel. We are currently going through an Anti-Social Behaviour Case review and we require this information for statistical purposes.
Having made enquiries within the Force we would not disclose the information you are requesting down to that level we would rely on the following exemption; however you may find some information on the below website on your area crime data and interactive maps:
Home | Police.uk (www.police.uk)
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.
By way of explanation to you I would point out the following:
Under subsection 2 of Section 40 of The Freedom of Information Act, information is exempt information if it constitutes personal information of which the applicant is not the data subject. To be considered exempt personal information, the information must satisfy one of two conditions. It must either be information which would be exempt from disclosure to the data subject under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018, or disclosure of the information would contravene any of the Data Protection Principles or cause damage or distress to the data subject and or their families.
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’).
Releasing data under the Freedom of Information act is to the world at large and not just the individual, disclosure of this information to the granular level requested could possibly lead to identification of the data subjects involved and therefore would amount to unfair processing and therefore is exempt under Section 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.
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