Machete Crimes 2025

Request Number: FOI/16711

Category: Incident and Crime Statistics - Knife Crime

Subject: Machete Crimes 2025

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 (PSNI) does hold some information to which your request relates and this is being provided to you. 

We further consider the information you seek in question 3 is partially exempt by virtue of Section 40 of FOIA and have detailed our rationale as to why this exemption applies. We have also provided you with links to guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which we have followed in responding to your request. 

Question 1
For the months of November and December 2025 how many crimes were logged by your force where a machete was recorded as being an element in the offence? [Note: I would hope that this could be achieved by a computer search on the MO of crimes for the words "machete" or variants of the spelling to include "machette" and "machetes".

Question 2
Please provide me with a table showing a breakdown of the crimes from Question 1 that are linked" to machete/s by its mention in the MO.

Answers 1 & 2
In November 2025 and December 2025 there were 8 crimes with a linked weapon MO of ‘machete’. Five of these crimes were violence with injury, one was burglary, one was criminal damage and one was possession of article with blade or point.

Please note:  This is management information based on data extracted from a live system and may be subject to change. It is dependent on the information having been input into the system in such a way as to identify those records that are relevant.

Question 3
Taking the month of December 2025 please provide me with copies of the first 5 MOs that mention machetes. [Note: To avoid falling into an exemption I am content for names, ages, geography or any other personal detail to be redacted].

Answer
Please note that while there were 8 such crimes recorded, these related to 5 separate incidents.  PSNI has made the decision to withhold some of this information as it reveals personal information (e.g. Names of Individuals).

Incident 1 - Police called to ongoing incident where an injured party had suffered a severe stab wound to their leg by a machete.

Incident 2 – Police attended an incident & it has been alleged, that a male was struck with a machete.

Incident 3 – Police attended, and were advised that someone had a machete.

Incident 4 – Police attended an assault and recovered a machete.

Incident 5 - Police attended and observed a black handled axe.

Partial Answer
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:

1. states that fact,
2. specifies the exemption in question and
3. states (if not otherwise apparent) why the exemption applies.

The exemption is listed below:

Section 40(2)(a)(b) by virtue of Section 40(3)(a)(i) – Personal Information - Information constitutes personal data and disclosure would contravene any of the Data Protection principles.

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
Section 40 (2) of the FOIA is an absolute exemption which means there is no requirement on 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 constitutes ‘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 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 in a ‘lawful and fair’ manner. In considering whether it is ‘fair’ to any individual to release information about them, PSNI considered the likely expectations of those individuals and the nature of the information involved. Individuals must have confidence that their information is treated sensitively and appropriately by PSNI. The PSNI has a duty to protect the personal data of all individuals, no matter who they are. Therefore it would be a breach of the first principle of data protection legislation. This information is therefore exempt under section 40(2) of the FOIA as it contravenes data protection legislation to release it and the PSNI has made the decision to withhold the information.