Domestic Abuse Misconduct (846A/20)
Request
Could you please disclose the following information:
- The number of reports of domestic abuse-related incidents and domestic abuse-related offences (also known as domestic violence) that have been received by your force’s Professional Standards Department (or otherwise named) from October 1, 2017 to October 1, 2020.
- . Whatever name/category your Professional Standards Dept assigned to each report
- . The specific incident(s) or offence(s) alleged in each report
- The outcome(s) of each report
Whether each report was referred to the IPOC (formerly known as the IPCC)
Response
We can confirm that some relevant information is held by West Midlands Police. However, while the majority of the information is attached to this email I am afraid that I am not required to release all of the information requested. Please see attached.
REASONS FOR DECISION
The withheld information is exempt by virtue of the following exemptions
S40(2) – Personal Data
S30(1)(a) – Investigations and Proceedings
These exemptions and explanatory notes are shown here:
In line with the above, I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public Interest Test (PIT) on disclosure. Please find this PIT attached [846A_PIT_01].
Section 40(2) is an absolute and class based exemption if to release the information exists would breach the third party’s data protection rights. In this case to release this personal information would not constitute fair processing of the data. As this exemption is class based I am not required to identify the harm in disclosure and in this instance I believe that the right to privacy outweighs any public interest in release.