FOI 10341-25 BBQ-related incidents and arrests

Request to Northamptonshire Police:

I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding incidents involving barbecues (BBQs) over the past 3 years:

Time Period: January 2022 to the most recent available month in 2025
Breakdown: Ideally by month and by city/town, or region if more appropriate

1. The number of call-outs where BBQs were a contributing factor (e.g., reports of fire, public disturbance, antisocial behaviour, etc.). If you can provide the call out type with this it would be great but total number if not.

2. The number of arrests or charges brought as a result of fires started by BBQs.

3. The number of arrests or charges brought in connection with disturbances at BBQs (e.g., alcohol-related, antisocial behaviour, fights, etc.).

Response:

Incidents searched for all incidents with a keyword search of the incident description for ‘BBQ’ or ‘BARBECUE’ between January 2022 and April 2025. Crimes searched for linked crimes and the keyword ‘BBQ’ or ‘BARBECUE’ in the MO free text.

As with any keyword search, the search will only return exact matches within the Incident Description or Crime MO. This does not account for differences in terminology and/or spelling used. Keyword searches are problematic and in no way provide accurate results or figures. If the selected key words have not been mentioned in the MO the data will not be returned. Vice versa, if the key words have been mentioned in an unrelated context irrelevant data will be collected.

1. 

Call out types will not be broken down by month and town. See S40 exemption below.

2. & 3. Arrests and charges will not be broken down by year and town. See S40 exemption below.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires that, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) is to provide you the applicant with a notice which:

1. States that fact
2. Specifies the exemption(s) in question and
3. States (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption(s)

The information is exempt from disclosure by virtue of the following exemption:

Section 40(2) – Personal Information

Section 40 pertains to third party personal data. This would not be released under the Freedom Of Information Act unless there is a strong public interest. This is because any release would breach the Principles contained within Article 5(1) of the GDPR and Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

One of the main differences between the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act is that any information released under Freedom Of Information is released into the public domain, not just to the individual requesting the information. As such, any release that identifies an individual through releasing their personal data, even third party personal data, is exempted unless there is a strong public interest in its release. The public interest is not what interests the public but what benefits the community as a whole.

Personal data is defined under the Data Protection Act as data that is biographical in nature, has the applicant as its focus and/or affects the data subject’s privacy in his or her personal, professional or business life.

Principle a of Article 5(1) states that information must be processed fairly, lawfully and in a transparent manner. In this case the individuals would have a reasonable expectation that information would not be processed if it resulted in their identification, or equally led an individual to be wrongfully identified as a consequence. The risk increases where numbers are low. Disclosures which appear harmless, pieced together with other disclosures can be used in a ‘mosaic effect’ to third parties who may have access to additional information that would enable them to link the requested information to an individual.

Freedom Of Information Act disclosures are to the world at large and will remain in the public domain indefinitely. Therefore, provision of this information would exceed the original Policing requirement for the processing of the information and would not be lawful or fair to the individuals in question.

It is for these reasons outlined above; that I feel the principle a would be breached by this disclosure and the Section 40 exemption remains in place. I am not obliged to consider any further principle in my arguments. This is an absolute, class-based exemption and, as such, there is no requirement to consider the public interest test.