FOI 0621-2023/24 - Number of Knife Crimes Occurring in Schools

Request:

Please provide the following, under the Freedom of Information Act, for the past 5 calendar years, from 2018 to the present and where the location is a school:

Q1. The number of knife crime offences split by:

Q2. offence type

Q3. knife type

Q4. what the knife was used for (ie stabbing, threatening)

Q5. Victim and suspect demographics, including but not limited to age, gender, ethnicity and relationship between victim and suspect

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 which details the number of knife crimes recorded by North Yorkshire Police for the past 5 years, broken down by year. I have disassociated the tables pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information act. Please see the exemption explanation below for more information.

Years	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Total	2	3	2	5	1

Q2 Please see the table below which details the crime types recorded by North Yorkshire Police for the past 5 years, broken down by year.

	Crime Type	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	Total
	Possession Of Weapons	1		1	2	1	5
	Public Order Offences				1		1
	Violence Against The Person	1	3	1	2		7
	Total	2	3	2	5	1	13

Q3 The type of knife used is not mandatorily recorded so a number of these reports hold no information relating to this. I have therefore provided you with the information that we do hold in relation to your request. The list is as follows.

• Multi tool knife
• Kitchen knife
• Flick knife
• Plastic knife
• Pen knife
• Scissors
• Swiss army knife
• Glass bottle

Q4. Please see the table below which detail how the knifes have been used recorded by North Yorkshire Police for the past 5 years. I have not broken this down by year pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information act. Please see the exemption explanation below for more information.

Result in injury	Threats
3	10

Q5 Please see the tables below which details the victim and offender demographics such as age, gender, ethnicity, and relationship recorded by North Yorkshire Police for the past 5 years. I have disassociated the tables pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information act. Please see the exemption explanation below for more information.

Ages	Victim	Offender
Not recorded	1	0
10-20	12	17
30-40	1	0
40-50	3	0
Total	17	17

 

Gender	Victim		Offender
Male	11		15
Female	6		2
Total	17		17
Self-defined Ethnicity		Victim	Offender
W1. British		8	12
M9. Any other mixed		0	1
NS. Not stated		9	4
Total		17	17

 

Relationship	Total
Acquaintance	14
Victim refuses to identify	2
Stranger	1
Total	17

Section 40 – Personal Information

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.

The tables have been provided separately to refrain from any particular incidents becoming identifiable and consequently the personal details of any persons involved being disclosed.

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.