FOI 209-24 Acid Attacks

Enquiry Reference:  209 -24                                                                         

 

I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request, Below is your request and our response.

 

I would like to request the number of offences that were categorised as a corrosive offence in the Cleveland area between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023 inclusive.

 

1. The number of offences that were recorded as physical corrosive substance/fluid attacks against the person.

For this question we searched 005/07 - Causing explosions or throwing corrosive substances with intent to do GBH. In 2023 there was only one crime recorded of this type.

 

2. The number of threats of corrosive substance/fluid attacks against the person.

We don’t have a crime type to search for this specifically however we searched 008/76 - Threaten a person with an offensive weapon/substance in a private place. This brought back the results and searched the Mos for the words ‘acid’, ‘corrosive’, and ‘substance’ but this resulted in Nil result.

 

3. The age and gender of victims of the said offences mentioned in 1 and 2.

Please see exemption Below

4. The age and gender of suspects of the said offences mentioned in 1 and 2. 

 Please see exemption Below

5. Outcomes of physical corrosive substance attacks against the person.

15: Police - named suspect, victim supports but evidential difficulties

6. Outcomes of threats of corrosive substance attacks against the person.

N/A

 

Cleveland Police can confirm it holds any other 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.

 

This exemption is engaged where disclosure of information could lead to the identification of an individual, either from that information alone or combined with other information from within the Police Service or public domain. In this case, due to the low number the individual the information could be likely to identify the individuals concerned. Such a disclosure would breach an individual's rights under Article 5(1) of the GDPR.

 

 

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 APP College of Policing guidance 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.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Rights Decision Maker