FOI 0643 - 2023/24 - Number of Offenders of Online Child Sex Abuse Offences

Request: 

Q1. A breakdown by year of how many individuals in total were identified as a perpetrator in connection with an indecent image of a child

Q2. How many of these individuals were under 18

Q3. if possible a further breakdown by individual age of all those under 18.

Q4. In the year 2023 so far - January to September

a)January - December 2020

b)January - December 2019

c) January - December 2018

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 some of the located information to you.

Q1, Q2 and Q4.  Please see the table below, which shows the total number of offenders linked to the crime ‘take or make indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children’ recorded by North Yorkshire Police, broken down by year and offender age group.

Offender	Year
Age group	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Total
Adult	57	47	55	32	26	8	225
Child	4	4	6	6	6	0	26
Total	61	51	61	38	32	8	251

Q3. I am exempting providing you with the any further breakdown of individual ages of all those under 18 and the year this related to,  pursuant to Section 40(2) Freedom of Information Act (the Act). 

Further to the above, North Yorkshire Police neither confirms nor denies whether any other information relevant to this request is held by virtue of Section 23(5) – Information supplied by, or concerning, certain security bodies. Section 23 is a class based absolute exemption and there is no requirement to consider the harm or public interest test in this area.

No inference can be taken from this refusal that information does or does not exist.

Section 40 – Personal Information

I am exempting the further breakdown of individual ages of all those under 18 and a breakdown by year pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).

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 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) 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.