Hate Crimes - 1108/19

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Please provide the following data on an excel spreadsheet with a monthly and daily breakdown from January 1st, 2013 to the most updated figures. If data from January 1st are not available, please provide the earliest figures that are available since that date.

1. How many racially or religiously aggravated offences per month have been reported to the police?
2. How many racially or religiously aggravated offences per month broken by race/ethnic background and nationality have been reported to the police?
3. How many racially or religiously aggravated offences per day have been reported to the police?
4. How many racially or religiously aggravated offences per day broken by race/ethnic background and nationality have been reported to the police?
5. How many hate crimes per month have been reported to the police?
6. How many hate crimes per month broken by race/ethnic background and nationality have been reported to the police?
7. How many hate crimes per day have been reported to the police?
8. How many hate crimes per day broken by race/ethnic background and nationality have been reported to the police?
9. How many violent crimes per month have been reported to the police?
10. How many violent crimes per month broken by race/ethnic background and nationality have been reported to the police?
11. How many violent crimes per day have been reported to the police?
12. How many violent crimes per day broken by race/ethnic background and nationality have been reported to the police?

In Response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police.  I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

It should be noted that the data within the attached spreadsheet has been collated by searching for all recorded crime with a hate motivation flag (Race, Faith, Disability, sexual Orientation, Transgender) and all offences that fall under the Home Office classification of ‘Violence against the person’ for the period requested and linking it to victim data to establish ethnicity and nationality where recorded.

1. These can be calculated from the data contained within the attached spreadsheet.
2. Please see the attached spreadsheet
3. The total racially or religiously aggravated offences can be calculated from ethnicity and nationality breakdown contained within the attached spreadsheet.
4. Please see exemptions applied below.
5. These can be calculated from the data contained within the attached spreadsheet.
6. Please see the attached spreadsheet.
7. The total hate motivated offences can be calculated from ethnicity and nationality breakdown contained within the attached spreadsheet.
8. Please see exemptions applied below.
9. The number of violent crimes can be calculated from the attached spreadsheet.
10. Please see the attached spreadsheet.
11. The total violent crimes can be calculated from ethnicity and nationality breakdown contained within the attached spreadsheet.
12. Please see exemptions applied below.

Please note that we will not be providing the daily figures requested at points 4, 8 and 12 of your request and will rely on the following exemptions:

Section 31 - Law Enforcement

Section 40 - Personal information

Section 40 – This exemption is a class based absolute exemption - This means that the legislators have identified that there would be harm in disclosure and there is no need to evidence this or carry out a public interest test.

Section 31 - This exemption is a qualified and prejudice based exemption and therefore the legislators accept that there may be harm if released into the public domain.  The authority has to consider and describe the harm that would occur if the information were released and carry out a public interest test.  In accordance with best practice, I detail the harm first.

Harm

Disclosure of this type of information may be harmful to both Northumbria Police and local communities as it may enable criminals to assess if an offence they committed has been reported to the Police.  This would be detrimental to our ability to effectively police and protect individuals and would also have an adverse effect for the local community as criminals may be able to act with perceived less risk of apprehension.

Public Interest Test

Factors Favouring Disclosure

Disclosure would lead to a better awareness for the community in relation to this topic area enabling informed public debate to be undertaken.

Factors against Disclosure

Information of this nature could add to any local community tensions.  Whist we attempt to put as much information into the public domain as we can, we do not do so if this would jeopardise Law Enforcement or harm any individual or the wider public.

Balancing Test

Public safety and the ability to deliver effective law enforcement is of paramount importance. Disclosure would undoubtedly compromise law enforcement for the reasons already outlined above. Therefore, at this moment in time, it is our opinion that for these issues the balancing test against confirming whether or not information is held is not made out.