Serving Officers & Staff on Sex Offenders Register
Publication Number: 1516
FOI Number: 18440
Disclosure:
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 a request is held.
The second duty (at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
However, where exemptions are relied upon (Section 17 of FOIA), there is a requirement to provide the applicant with an explanation either:
- a) stating the fact
- b) detailing the exemption(s) in question and
- c) why the exemption applies (if not apparent).
Information Request which has been numbered to assist in this disclosure:
- ·How many serving officers and staff are on the sex offenders register?
- ·Please break any figure down by officers and staff.
- ·Of those, how many have been convicted of a sexual offence?
- ·Are you able to provide any further details of the offences?
- ·How many received a custodial sentence?
FOI Duty
First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your request
Second Duty – See below
Fact – Complaints as cases are individually identified, investigated and managed within the Centurion system by Professional Standards. Crime data is recorded on Athena – case management system
Essex Police record in line with police regulations 2020, home office guidance and IOPC Statutory guidance 2020
When a public complaint is received, an investigating officer is assigned a case and a severity assessment is completed in conjunction with the Appropriate Authority, depending on the level of assessment as set by regulations then a complaint may result in a conduct matter, gross misconduct or criminal charge. The assessment will continuously be reviewed together with management or the appropriate authority.
In February 2020 new regulations came into practice, and as such, new complaint strand headings were put in place which provide clearer understanding and extraction, the published guidelines based on the set 11 Complaint Categories A-L with 45 sub-categories and Misconduct Categories. Complaint and misconduct data are recorded pre strand in a case. It does not cover each Officer allegation within a separate complaint. Each complaint or misconduct case is likely to have more than one complaint/misconduct strand or category and could include multiple Officers subject to a complaint strand. please see Statutory guidance on the police complaints system (policeconduct.gov.uk) or page 28 of the linked Guidance document below. Guidance_on_capturing_data_about_police_complaints_Jan2021.pdf (policeconduct.gov.uk) (appendix A page 24)
Exemption – Not applicable
Disclosure – See below
Essex Police can report as follows:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 14 April 2023.
Question 1:
How many serving officers and staff are on the sex offenders register?
Answer = Zero ( 0 )
Questions 2 – 5:
Not applicable
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies and may include extenuating factors such as persistent complainers, as per the IOPC definition. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data. Please note the caveats provided with this disclosure
The conduct of a Police Officer or a Police Staff member is an important issue and Essex Police regularly receive FOI requests regarding misconduct and complaints both the PFCC and the Police Service need to be accountable and transparent regarding this issue. Essex Police have an internal anonymous reporting tool, external and internal IAG, PSD Focus Groups, Professionalism Engagement Team set up to specifically tackle these issues. Data suggests reporting methods are working well and increased publication and transparency together with work both internally and externally with PSD is gaining and retaining trust The following links have been provided to guide you to other sources of information published through OPFCC, NPCC, IOPC and on the Essex Police Website.
The force has developed a Professionalism Strategy as part of the Force Plan, which describes how, as individuals and collectively, the force can provide the best service to the public. Regular internal engagement events for both senior managers and all staff have been well received and reinforce a culture of inclusiveness, ethical behaviour and learning where staff flourish and have a sense of purpose.
There is an expectation that management and staff at all levels will lead by example, consistently displaying behaviour in line with the Code of Ethics | College of Policing and ensuring adherence to legal requirements and to all Essex Police policies, procedures and practices. The Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) holds the Police Force to account and has the legal power to hold the Chief Constable to account. Through Prevention, Intelligence, Enforcement, Communication and Engagement, Essex Police is committed to making sure the opportunity for corruption is reduced to the lowest possible risk. Where corruption is identified the organisation will deal with it proportionately and effectively. Please follow the following links to data available
Data is regularly published via quarterly reports including strand splits and summary of outcomes , please click on the following link: Conduct & Professional Standards - Essex Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner (pfcc.police.uk)
Misconduct hearings and upcoming hearing: https://www.essex.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/mis/misconduct-hearings/
In respect of violence against women girls (VAWG), the PFCC have been working with the National VAWG multi-agency to analyse our data, the following article provides more context and information
Policing violence against women and girls - National framework for delivery: Year 1 (npcc.police.uk)
FOI Publications: https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items?q=misconduct
Additional mandatory referrals and requested reviews can also be viewed via the IOPC web site. Investigations | Independent Office for Police Conduct Search | Independent Office for Police Conduct
Where an individual has been dismissed, the force will send a report, containing information set out in Regulations, to the College of Policing who will then update the barred list with those details. The same process will be used for the advisory list.
The College will make decisions on whether it is appropriate to publish the information on the barred list, taking into account national security, other ongoing investigations and any significant harm which may be caused to the individual or others. In the vast majority of cases, we expect that the information will be published. Barred list | College of Policing