FOI 232905
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 232905
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 2nd March 2023. Please find below the response to your request:
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information:
1a. How many serving police officers have been arrested for and subsequently charged with sexual assault in the last five years (2017 - 2022)? Please break this down into each calendar year and please provide the rank of the accused officer.
1b. What were the dates of each report of the sexual assault and the date that each officer was suspended from duty? Please provide in the format 01/01/23
1c. How many of the reports each year from 2017 to 2022 resulted in a guilty verdict?
2a. How many serving police officers have been arrested for and subsequently charged with child sexual abuse in the last five years (2017 - 2022)? Please break this down into each calendar year and please provide the rank of the accused officer.
2b. What were the dates of each report of the child sexual abuse charges and the date that each officer was suspended from duty? Please provide in the format 01/01/23
2c. How many of the reports each year from 2017 to 2022 resulted in a guilty verdict?
Reply
Your request for information has been considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), and I am not obliged to provide the information requested.
S.12(1) of the Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. For police forces in England and Wales, the "appropriate limit" is £450 or 18 hours of work as set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
The information you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. For the information to be obtained a police national computer (PNC) check would have to be carried out for every officer. There are currently 2569 officers. In order to ascertain whether the information you have requested is held would take in excess of 85 hours as each record would have to be checked individually.
In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.
Under s.16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide some of the information requested in relation to the conduct allegations that we have recorded from 20/01/2018 to date as this was retrieved during the release of FOI 223839, although this is not an exact response to your questions, the following data refers to allegations which resulted in conduct allegations;
This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.
1) The number of police staff employees and police officers accused of sexual offences (including rape, assault, causing sexual activity without consent, rape and other offences against children under 13, child sex offences, abuse of position of trust, indecent photographs of children, sexual exploitation of children, prostitution and ‘other’ offences including exposure) since January 20th 2018 to now:
27
including their job title and rank:
Constable – 20
Inspector – 4
Sergeant – 1
PCSO – 1
Staff – 1
2) A breakdown of what exactly the offence was (e.g. sexual harassment, indecent exposure, rape).
APSP – 15
Assault by Penetration and Rape – 1
Rape – 2
Sexual Assault – 8
Sexual Assault and Rape – 1
3) How many faced subsequent proceedings, and what were these proceedings?
Dismissed – 3
Final Written Warning – 2
Ongoing Investigation – 15
Would have been dismissed – 3
No action – 3
Retired – 1
Can you include in detail a breakdown of how many were arrested, charged, released without charges or jailed and when:
Arrested – 9
Charged – 5
Sentenced – 2