FOI 1019-2024/25 Arson Offences

Request
Q1. The number of arson offences reported to the service in the past three calendar years (2022, 2023, 2024). Please note that I require data related to arson (damage or destruction of property with fire) only, and not criminal damage generally. 

Please break the results down by the following: 

• Month and year of the report (e.g. January 2022, February 2022, etc.)
• Location (As specific as is reasonably possible)
• If the investigation led to an arrest (yes/no/ongoing)
• If a suspect was formally charged with the crime (yes/no/ongoing)
• If the crime caused injuries to a victim or victims (yes/no)
• The age and gender (if known) of the offender 

Q2. How many suspects were repeat offenders? By 'repeat offender', I refer to having been arrested or suspected of arson within the last five years.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. 

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

Q1. Please see the tables below showing the number of arson crimes recorded between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2024, broken down by Safer Neighbourhood Command (SNC) area, crime outcome (where charged/summonsed), whether the victim was injured, and the age range and gender of the offender (where there is an offender linked).

*Crimes still under investigation or awaiting an outcome to be applied

*Categories of injury include: emotional, fatal, financial, neglect, physical, psychological, slight.

*Based on the Home Office standard age groups

I have disassociated the tables to refrain from particular incidents becoming identifiable and consequently the personal details of any persons involved being disclosed, pursuant to Section 40(2) - Personal Information of the Freedom of Information Act (the Act). Please see the below exemption explanation.

Please note that I have not provided arrest data as an arrest may not be directly related to the arson crime recorded. This is because when an individual is arrested, the primary arrest reason is recorded on the custody record. In some cases, an individual may be the subject of an additional (secondary) arrest for an offence which was discovered after their initial arrest, this arrest reason is not recorded in a way which can be retrieved automatically from our crime recording systems.

An arrest reason is the detention of an individual by police officers with probable cause; it is not considered to be sufficient for charging the person with a crime nor indicative of guilt. In some cases an individual may eventually be charged with a different offence, or may not be charged at all.

Q2. There are 10 offenders linked to at least one further arson crime in the last 5 years (1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024).

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(2) – Personal Information
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

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)).

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.