Complaints reported against Chief Constable Jon Boutcher

Request Number: FOI/14236

Category: Discipline, Complaints and Legal - Grievance

Subject: Complaints reported against Chief Constable Jon Boutcher

Request and Answer: 

In relation to request number FOI/14236 Police Service of Northern Ireland is providing an NCND response and will explain this further in the response below.

Request 1
Please confirm the number of complaints reported against Chief Constable Jon Boutcher specifically identifying the number of complaints of corruption - serious corruption, or what amounts to corruption - serious corruption within the meaning of serious corruption as defined within the office of Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland and IOPCs guidelines # Statutory Guidance.

Request 2
Together with the number of complaints reported against Chief Constable Jon Boutcher that were referred to the office of Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland in accordance with the mandatory criteria prescribed within the required guidelines # Statutory Guidance

I would like the requested information to cover years 2023, 2024 and 2025.
This request is for information on all complaints, those which were and were not recorded.

Answer
In accordance with the Act, this letter represents a Refusal Notice for this particular request. The Police Service of Northern Ireland can neither confirm nor deny that it holds the information you have requested.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in the request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.

Where exemption/s are relied upon Section 17(1) of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which
    a) states that fact,
    b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and
    c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) can Neither Confirm Nor Deny that it holds the information relevant to your request as the duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply by virtue of the following exemption(s):

Section 40(5B)(a)(i) - Personal Information - the duty to confirm or deny does not arise if to do so would contravene any of the data protection principles.

‘Neither Confirm nor Deny’ (NCND)
There may be occasions when complying with the duty to confirm or deny under section 1(1)(a) would in itself disclose sensitive or potentially damaging information that falls under an exemption. In these circumstances, the Act allows a public authority to respond by refusing to confirm or deny whether it holds the requested information.

The decision to issue a ‘neither confirm nor deny’ response is not affected by whether we do or do not hold the information but relates to the consequences of confirming or denying the information is held. The starting point and main focus in most cases will be theoretical considerations about the consequences of confirming or denying that a particular type of information is held. The decision to neither confirm nor deny is separate from a decision not to disclose information and needs to be taken entirely on its own merits.

PSNI follow the Information Commissioner’s Guidance in relation to ‘NCND’ and you may find it helpful to refer to this at the following link:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guidance-index/freedom-of-information-and-environmental-information-regulations/when-to-refuse-to-confirm-or-deny-holding-information/

Exemption Explained
Section 40(5B)(a)(i) is an absolute exemption; therefore it is not necessary to carry out a public interest test.

The full text of exemptions can be found at www.legislation.gov.uk and further guidance on how they operate can be located on the Information Commissioners Office website www.ico.org.uk

Section 40(5)(B)(a)(i) - Personal Information
(5B) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to other information if or to the extent that any of the following applies -
(a) giving a member of the public the confirmation or denial that would have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a) (i) would (apart from this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles.
(i) would (apart from this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles

Information disclosed under the FOI Act is disclosed into the public domain, effectively to the world and not just to one individual. To confirm or deny whether personal information exists in response to your request could publicly reveal information about individuals, thereby breaching the right to protection of their personal information afforded to them under the Data Protection Act 2018. When confirming or denying that information is held would breach an individual’s rights under the Data Protection Act legislation, Section 40(5) becomes an absolute exemption, and there is no requirement to provide evidence of a prejudice occurring, or to conduct a public interest test. To confirm or deny that the PSNI hold or do not hold information would in fact confirm information about an individual including the fact it may or may not be held. This would amount to a release into the public domain of personal information about an individual. The individual would have no expectation that these details would be released into the public domain, therefore their data protection rights would be breached by release. Individuals may try to use the FOI legislation to circumvent the law and may try to obtain information which they are not entitled to or to try and find out whether the police hold any information about them or others. To ensure this does not occur, police services use a ‘neither confirm nor deny approach’ and this has to be used consistently to ensure that we can protect this method of response and do not and undermine the rationale for adopting the NCND response in the first place.

The release of information under Freedom of Information (FOI) is a release into the public domain and not just to the individual requesting the information. Once information is disclosed by FOI there is no control or limits as to who or how the information is shared with other individuals, therefore a release under FOI is considered a disclosure to the world in general.

However, this should not be taken as conclusive evidence that the information you requested exists or does not exist.