FOI 0649-2023/24- Sexual assaults in schools

Request:

Q1. How many reports of the crimes listed below have been recorded by your police force that have taken place at schools in your area in each calendar year since 2017 inclusive.

For 2023, please provide totals up to today (25 September, 2023).

For the purposes of this request, please provide totals for the schools listed in the Wikipedia links in the body of this request.

Crimes: 

• Sex - Assault a male 13 or over by penetration with part of body / a thing - SOA 2003
• Sex - Assault a boy under 13 by penetration with a part of your body / a thing - SOA 2003
• Sex - Sexual assault on a male - SOA 2003
• Sex - Assault a boy under 13 by touching - SOA 2003
• Sex - Rape a girl aged 13 / 14 / 15 - SOA 2003
• Multiple undefined offenders - Rape of a female aged under 16 - SOA 2003
• Sex - Rape a woman 16 years of age or over - SOA 2003
• Sex - Rape a male under 16
• Sex - Attempt to rape a woman 16 or over - SOA 2003
• Sex - Attempted rape of a male under 16 years of age
• Sex - Rape a girl under 13 - SOA 2003
• Sex - Rape of a boy under 13 - SOA 2003
• Sex - Assault a female 13 and over by penetration with part of body / a thing - SOA 2003
• Sex - Assault a girl under 13 by penetration with a part of your body / a thing - SOA 2003
• Sex - Sexual assault on a female - SOA 2003
• Sex - Assault a girl under 13 by touching - SOA 2003

Locations:

N Yorkshire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_in_North_Yorkshire

York https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_in_York

Response: 

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. Please see the table below for the Rape and Sexual Assault crimes (assault by penetration is categorised under Sexual Assault) recorded by North Yorkshire Police between 1^st January 2017 and 18^th October 2023 where the location recorded is a school, broken down by crime and year.

I am exempting a breakdown by school, pursuant to Section 40(2) – Personal Information and S44(1) - Prohibitions on Disclosure, this is to ensure anonymity for those involved in each case, especially where some knowledge may already be known.  Please see the exemption explanation below.

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 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.

Section 44 - Prohibitions on Disclosure

Section 44(1) of the Act is an absolute, class-based, exemption, meaning that there is no requirement to consider the public interest in disclosing the information nor evidence the harm that would be caused.

Releasing the information requested, aggregated by reference to a particular crime, could allow for the identification of the victim(s).  The Sexual Offences Act 1992 extends the anonymity that was once given only to victims of rape, to victims of most other sexual offences.  Schedule 2 (as amended by Schedule 6 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003) provides a list of offences, the victims of which are guaranteed anonymity under the provision of Section 1. 

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.