FOI Sodium Nitrite incidents (0450-2024/25)

Request
Q1. Please provide the number of incidents/crimes/reports received/attended by North Yorkshire Police referencing 'Sodium Nitrite'. Please search records from 2018 to present.  Please break down the statistics by year and month.

Q2. Please provide the number of incidents/crimes/reports received/attended by North Yorkshire Police referencing 'Sodium Nitrate'. Please search records from 2018 to present.  Please break down the statistics by year and month.

Q3. Please provide the number of incidents/crimes/reports received/attended by North Yorkshire Police referencing 'suicide kit'. Please search records from 2018 to present.  Please break down the statistics by year and month.

Q4.Please provide the number of incidents/crimes/reports received/attended by North Yorkshire Police referencing 'website'. Please search records from 2018 to present.  Please break down the statistics by year and month.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.  

Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.

Q1 & Q2. There have been no crimes or incidents recorded between 01 January 2018 to 28 August 2024 where the term ‘sodium nitrite’ or ‘sodium nitrate’ has been mentioned within the MO remarks or occurrence summary.

Q3.  I am exempting any information to this question pursuant to section 30  (investigations) and section 40 (personal information).  Please see the explanation below.

Q4. Please see the tables below showing the total number of crimes and incidents recorded where the term ‘website’ is mentioned within the MO remarks or occurrence summary  between 01 January 2018 to 28 August 2024, broken down by month and calendar year.

Please see the table below showing officer attendance in relation to the above crimes/incidents.

Please note, for the purposes of reporting, attendance is taken as when an officer is needed to attend in a timely response, it will exclude any appointments made in the future where an officer may need to attend to take statements or CCTV collection.

Exemption Explanation

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Section 30 (Investigations)
Section 30 is a qualified, class-based exemption, which requires that I conduct a public interest test to balance the legitimate interests of the public in knowing the information against the interests of non-disclosure.

Public Interest Test – Section 30
Reasons for Disclosure
Better awareness may reduce crime.

The public have an interest in understanding how the police investigate crime.

Reasons against Disclosure
An investigation would be prejudiced.

Disclosure could hinder the prevention and detection and crime, as any offenders could potentially take measure to avoid detection.

Balancing Test
After considering the reasons for and against disclosure, it is my opinion that the reasons for non-disclosure outweigh the reasons for disclosure.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a refusal notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to part of your request.

Section 40 – Personal Information
Where an individual can be identified by such data, releasing it would clearly breach the first data protection principle of being ‘fair’ to the data subject.

Section 40(2) is an absolute class based exemption, which does not require a public interest test, but requires the balancing of the legitimate interests of the public against the interests of the individual under the first Data Protection Principle; in that processing of personal data must be lawful and fair (DPA 2018 35(1), EUGDPR Article 5(1)).

This exemption applies because the right given under the FOI Act to request official information held by public authorities does not apply to the personal data of third parties where disclosure of that information would not be fair to the individual, and where there is no legitimate public interest in disclosure.

In all the circumstances of the case it has been determined that the duty to the individual under the Data Protection Act 2018 & EU General Data Protection Regulations, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption from disclosure of personal information held by the force in such instances, outweighs the public interest in disclosure.  In this instance, personal information can only be disclosed to the individual concerned. 

Releasing personal details to a person other than the data subject would not only breach the data subject’s Data Protection rights it may also breach the obligations placed on an authority under the European Convention on Human Rights

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a refusal notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to your request.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.