Tribunal Considers Disclosure of Police Data in Prevent Case
Estelle Dehon KC and John Fitzsimons appear today in the First-tier Tribunal acting pro bono for JUSTICE, instructed by Travers Smith LLP.
They are acting in an FOI appeal where JUSTICE is seeking the disclosure of ethnicity, age and gender data held by West Midlands and Merseyside Police forces under the UK Government’s counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent. Prevent aims to identify people at risk of radicalisation by terrorist organisations and to prevent them from offending. However, it is often criticised as stigmatising Muslim communities and impacting on freedom of expression.
The appeal will consider whether the national security and law enforcement exemptions relied on by the Information Commissioner and the police forces are engaged, and if so, whether the public interest in maintaining those exemptions outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information (in particular transparency and accountability, safeguarding policing by consent, and evidence based policy-making).
Further information about the appeal can be seen here.
Estelle and John are members of Cornerstone Barristers’ highly regarded Information Law team. The team has been involved in some of the most important and high-profile information law cases in recent years.
