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Request:
I am writing to request data on recorded crimes, arrests and charges by your force for the following offences under the 2003 Female Genital Mutilation Act.
Q1. Assisting a non-UK person to mutilate the female genitalia of a British citizen overseas
Q2. Failing to protect a girl from the risk of FGM
Q3. Conducting FGM
Q4. Assisting a girl to conduct FGM on herself.
I am requesting data for the following years: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and the first six months of 2024 (1 Jan 2024 to 30 Jun 2024).
Please break the data in your response down by year and by each offence.
Response:
Decision
Your request for information has now been considered and I am not obliged to supply the information requested.
I am exempting any information to this request pursuant to Section 40 (Personal Information) and Section 44 (Prohibitions on disclosure). Please see the 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. Please see the exemption explanations below.
Section 40 – Personal Information
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)).
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.
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 including FGM. 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.