December 23, 2025 | Incident and Crime Statistics , Sexual Offences
Request Number: FOI/16335
Category: Incident and Crime Statistics - Crime Statistics
Subject: Administering a substance with intent
Request and Answer:
Your request for information has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Act we can confirm that the Police Service of Northern Ireland does hold information to which your request relates and some of this is being provided to you. We further consider some of the information you seek is exempt by virtue of Section 40(2) of FOIA. We have also provided you with links to guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office which we have followed in responding to your request. The decision has been taken to disclose the following.
Question
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting public records of all incident reports listed under the category "88C Other Miscellaneous Sexual Offences - Administering a substance with intent" recorded by the PSNI in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the period from September 2024 to October 2025.
This request is a non-commercial request. I am requesting fees be waived as outlined in the FOI Act as this is a request for journalistic research purposes and public information that is to be shared publicly. If a waiver of fees is not given then I request an estimate of the cost be provided prior to filling the FOIA request.
Answer
In the time frame requested there have been two recorded offences of 88C Other Miscellaneous Sexual Offences - Administering a substance with intent. We are withholding the information on the reports and this has been explained below.
Partial Exemption
Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the Police Service of Northern Ireland, 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 not otherwise apparent) why the exemption applies.
The exemption is listed below:
Section 40(2)(a)(b) by virtue of 40(3)(A)(a) Personal Information – Information constitutes personal data and disclosure would contravene any of the Data Protection principles.
Section 40(2) of the FOIA is an absolute exemption which means there is no requirement on the PSNI to consider whether there is a public interest in disclosure. It is an interface exemption and we must consider whether release of the information would breach the General Data Protection Regulations (‘GDPR’) or the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘DPA’) Third party personal information in relation to names, and therefore this information constitutes information which can identify individuals is ‘personal data’ under the GDPR (Article 4) and DPA (Part 1 s.3).
Under the Freedom of Information Act, PSNI must consider if information can be released into the public domain. We have therefore considered whether the disclosure of this personal data is subject to the exemption at Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by virtue of s40 (3)(A)(a). As this information is ‘personal data’, PSNI considered whether disclosure would contravene any of the six data protection principles contained within the GDPR or DPA.
The six data protection principles are good information handling standards which PSNI must comply with in relation to how it handles personal information, including deciding whether to disclose it or not. In particular, the first principle requires personal data to be processed ‘fairly and lawfully’. In considering whether it is ‘fair’ to any individual to release information about them, PSNI considered the likely expectations of the individual and the nature of the information involved including police officers and police staff must have confidence that their information is treated sensitively and appropriately by PSNI. We consider that any individual would not have any reasonable expectation that PSNI would disclose such information of this nature about them. We consider it would be extremely unfair to this individual and therefore a breach of the first principle of data protection legislation.