Large Scale Protests (1666A/22)
Request
1. Please disclose to me the operation names of any large scale protest action that you have been called out to as a force over the last two calendar years (2021, and 2022).
It is only basic details of these operations I require. I’m not asking for internal documents, workings, technologies used, number of officers deployed, cost of this, or anything other than the following:
Operation name, date, the name of the group involved (this could span anything from white nationalists to environmentalists – XR, BLM, National Action, EDL, NBU, Insulate Britain, Women’s Rights marches, anti-military Marches like the anti-Elbit Systems action recently, and things like this).
2. I’d also like to know what constitutes a “large scale operation” please. I have been made aware that forces may not be able to answer, for example, questions about smaller operations like protests of one person, so I’ve been advised by multiple forces that large scale operations carry a much higher chance of being answerable within cost limit.
3. And if possible (within cost limit) the amount of people arrested during these actions in the limited 24 month period.
4. If possible, and if it isn’t exempt, I’d also like a list (if it exists in this format) of the groups that are of most interest to you regarding these large scale operations, or which exist on a list of monitored groups, again this could include any type of organisation but I’m really only looking for the bare bones basics of the most of note (top ten, or top five) groups that are of concern to your force.
Response
Q1 – See attached (1666A_22_attachment.pdf) which relates to overt policing operations. However, West Midlands Police will neither confirm nor deny that any information is held in relation to covert or undercover policing operations by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 23(5) – Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters
Section 24(2) – National security
Section 30(3) – Investigations and proceedings conducted by the public authority
Section 31(3) – Law enforcement
Section 40(5) – Personal information
In line with Sections 24(2), 30(3) and 31(3) above, I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public Interest Test (PIT) on disclosure. Please find this PIT attached (1666A_22_PIT1.pdf).
Q2 – See attached (1666A_22_attachment.pdf).
Q3 – Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. This is because it is not centrally collated and therefore, we would need to conduct a manual trawl of our operation management system and cross reference with custody records to identify any potential arrests. Such a search however would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
This means that the cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of confirming or denying that the information is held would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(2) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here.
Q4 – West Midlands Police will neither confirm nor deny that any information is held in relation to “a list of the groups that are of most interest to” West Midlands Police “regarding these large scale operations, or which exist on a list of monitored groups” by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 23(5) – Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters
Section 24(2) – National security
Section 31(3) – Law enforcement
In line with Sections 24(2), and 31(3) above, I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public Interest Test (PIT) on disclosure. Please find this PIT attached (1666A_22_PIT2.pdf).