Modern Slavery (599A/23)
Request
Please provide the number of cases of modern slavery and human trafficking reported to the force between January 1st 2022 and December 31st 2022. Please disaggregate data according to the following information:
– The crime outcome of the offences (for example, this includes but is not limited to outcomes such as ‘cautioned’, ‘charged/summonsed’, Evidential difficulties (victim does not support investigation), no suspect identified, ‘Not in public interest (police), Not in public interest (CPS)’ and any other outcomes recorded),
– The age of victims recorded, either adult (18 years or older) or child (17 years old or younger).
Please note that for the purposes of this request, ‘victim’ is a person who has reported having been a victim of this crime.
Response
Please find data attached.
In addition to the attached response West Midlands Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds any other information relevant 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 23(5) Information supplied by, or concerning, certain Security Bodies
Section 23 is a class based absolute exemption and there is no requirement to consider the public interest in this case.
Confirming or denying the existence of whether any other information is held would contravene the constrictions laid out within Section 23 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in that this stipulates a generic bar on disclosure of any information applied by, or concerning, certain Security Bodies.
This exemption and explanatory notes is shown here:
No inference can be taken from this refusal that any further information relevant to your request does or does not exist.