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Request:
I seek the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The questions refer to the Stalking Protection Act 2019.
Please can you answer the following questions per calendar year starting from 01/01/2019:
Q1. How many Stalking Prevention Orders were issued?
Q2. I would appreciate if per year, you could group the SPOs issued by the age groups <18, 18-64, and >64.
Q3. If this is not possible, please provide the data in whichever age categories are available.
Q4. How many arrests were made under suspicion of stalking?
Q5. How many breaches of Stalking Protection Orders were recorded?
Q6. How many reports of stalking were recorded?
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. The information you have requested is published on the North Yorkshire Police website under the following link
FOI 0493-2023/24 - Stalking Protection Orders | North Yorkshire Police
I have therefore decided to exempt providing you with a response to Q1 pursuant to Section 21 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).
Q2 & Q3. I am exempting any information to this part of your request pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information act. Please see the full exemption explanation below.
Q4. Please see the table below which details the number of arrests made by North Yorkshire Police for stalking offences from 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2023, broken down by year.
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Total |
|
Stalking Arrests |
100 |
134 |
164 |
221 |
233 |
852 |
The above arrests were for the following crimes
I am exempting a breakdown of the number of arrests per offence, per year pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information act. Please see the full exemption explanation below.
Q5. No breaches were recorded within ths time frame
Q6. Please see the table below which details the number of reports made to North Yorkshire Police for stalking offences from 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2023, broken down by year.
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Total |
|
Stalking reports |
551 |
1010 |
1054 |
1049 |
1081 |
4745 |
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 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means
Section 21 is an absolute class based exemption and I am not required to consider the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.
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 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.