FOI Historic Misconduct Data (1276-2023/24)

Request

I am writing to request information regarding reports of sexual offences and misconduct made against officers in your force between 2013 and 2024. In particular, I am writing to request information about:
• the date each report was received;
• the types of sexual offences reported
o If the report was about a sexual offence classified in the  Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Part 1), please refer to the offence as named in that Act (e.g., 'assault by penetration', 'voyeurism').
o If the report concerned sexual misconduct which is not mentioned in the Sexual Offences Act 2003, please provide a brief description of the misconduct (e.g., 'sexual harassment via derogatory sexual comments')
• the date each offence allegedly occurred;
• whether an investigation was launched into the report;
• whether a conviction was made for each alleged offence;
• whether the offence was allegedly committed by an officer against whom a sexual offence report had been made in the past;
o If so, how many prior reports had been made against the officer and what outcome they had
• whether the alleged victim was employed by the force;
• the gender of the alleged victim and perpetrator;
• whether the offence was allegedly committed while the officer was on duty.
I would appreciate it if you could provide me with the most recent data available on the above between 2013 and 2024. The format I would like this data to be presented in is exhibited by the attached Excel file. This file includes sample data in red font, to be replaced by data concerning your force. Please fill out this Excel file with all the relevant data and send it back to me at: [email protected]

As is shown by the attached file, I would like the data to be presented in a table with the following headers for each column:
• Date report was received (month, year)
• Date sexual offence allegedly occurred (month, year)
• Type of sexual offence/misconduct reported (if the sexual offence is classified in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Part 1), please refer to the offence as named in that Act. If not, please provide a brief description of the sexual misconduct).
• Gender of alleged victim
• Gender of alleged offender
• Was an investigation conducted into the report? (yes/no)
• Was the alleged offender found guilty of the offence? (yes/no)
• If the alleged offender was found guilty of the offence, what punitive measures were taken against them?
• Was the alleged victim employed by the force at the time of the offence? (yes/no)
• Was the alleged victim an officer in the force? (yes/no)
o If so, was the sexual offence allegedly committed while the officer was on duty? (yes/no)
• Had sexual offence reports been made against the alleged offender before this report? (yes/no)
• If sexual offence reports had been made against the officer in the past, please specify how many
• If sexual offence reports had been made against the officer in the past, please specify how many they had been found guilty of

Further notes:
• Please include information about alleged sexual offences made by offenders of any gender against victims of any gender (e.g., Male on Male, Female on Female, Female on Male, etc.)

Response

Extent of Searches to Locate Information

Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information. 

Decision

I am not obliged to provide you with a response to your request pursuant to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.

Section 12(1) applies to your request as the cost of complying with your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of identifying and retrieving any relevant information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Misconduct data from 2013 to 2020 is not held in a way that can be searched automatically. In order to retrieve the requested information, it would be necessary to manually review over 3000 files to extract the data required to fulfil your request, which would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, in 2020 a standardised format of recording misconduct data was introduced. If you re-submit your request to include information from 2020 to date we may be able to assist. If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the document on the link below which identifies the codes used for misconduct cases.

Guidance-on-capturing-data-police-complaints-Feb-2024.pdf (policeconduct.gov.uk)

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.