FOI 1130-2024/25- Sexual assaults in hospitals

Request:

Q1. How many reports have been made to the force of sexual assaults which are alleged to have taken place at hospitals in the North Yorkshire Police area since January 1st 2022?

Q2. How many reports have been made to the force of rape which are alleged to have taken place at hospitals in the North Yorkshire Police area since January 1st 2022?

Q3. How many of the above points 1 and 2 were reported to have taken place in a location described as a ‘hospital ward’?

Q4. How many people have been charged with sexual assault/rape regarding points 1 and 2 above

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

Some of the information you have requested in relation to the timeframe 01 November 2022 to 30 November 2024 is published on the North Yorkshire Police website under the following link:

FOI 1032-2024/25- Sexual assaults in hospitals | North Yorkshire Police

I have therefore decided to exempt providing you with a partial response to question 1 - 4 pursuant to Section 21 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please see the exemption explanation below.

For the timeframe  01 January 2022 to 31 October 2022  and 01 December 2024 to 20 February 2025 there have been four sexual assault crimes and zero rape crimes recorded with an MO location of hospital. After a manual review, two of these occurred on a ward. Of those two recorded sexual assault crimes, there have been zero* charged outcomes.

*Please note this figure may be subject to change as some are awaiting finalisation.

*Please note that the MO location of hospital may include anything within hospital grounds.

Exemption Explanation

Section 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means

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 is an absolute class based exemption and I am not required to consider the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in response 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.