Information regarding assaults on Licensees and their staff

Summary

A requester asked the Isle of Man Constabulary for statistics on assaults at licensed premises over the past four years, including investigation, arrest, and sentencing outcomes. The authority responded by confirming the release of baseline data covering events recorded at licensed premises classified as 'violence against the person' for the last four crime years.

Key Facts

• The request covered a four-year period regarding assaults on licensees and their staff.
• The Constabulary analyzed baseline data for the last four crime years (April-March).
• Data was filtered for events at addresses identified as licensed premises.
• Events were specifically those opened or closed as 'violence against the person'.
• The authority noted that some potentially relevant events may have been excluded from the analysis.

Data Disclosed

• 2021-05-10
• 2021-05-25
• 1785313
• 4 years
• April-March

Original Request

Dear Isle of Man Constabulary, I am writing to make a freedom of information request for all the information to which I am entitled under the relevant Freedom of Information provisions. I am an Isle of Man resident. Please send me: 1) Information regarding the number of calls to licensed premises on the Isle of Man in the past 4 years where an assault on either a Licensee, their staff or any of their agents was part of the reason for the call. 2) Information regarding how many of these calls lead to an investigation into a potential crime. 3) How many of these calls led to an arrest of a culprit 4) How many of these offenders were dealt with by police caution(or lesser means) or did not end up being dealt with by the judicial system by which I mean the courts and Attorney General's Office. 5) What levels of sentencing where applied to all of the cases of assault on a Licensee, their staff, or their agents within the period(If this is not available to yourselves please make me aware of where I can attain this information from). I believe that this is likely to be included with the Freedom of Information definition of 'all information held by authorities listed in Schedule 1 of the Act and which was created on or after 11 October 2011.' I would like the above information to be provided to me as electronic copies by email to me. If the files are too large to transfer by email, I am happy to attend your offices with a USB stick. If you prefer alternative arrangements, please contact me to discuss. If this request is too wide or unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that Manx law requires you to advise and assist requesters. If any of this information is already is already publicly available, please advise and assist me to locate the information I am seeking, with page references and URLs if necessary. If the release of any of this information is prohibited on the grounds of breach of confidence, I ask that you supply me with copies of the confidentiality agreement and remind you that information should generally not be treated as confidential if such an agreement has not been signed. I understand that you are required to respond to my request within the 20 working days after you receive this letter. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you.

Data Tables (2)

Full Response Text

Isle of Man Constabulary Freedom of Information Police Headquarters Dukes Avenue Douglas Isle of Man IM2 4RG

Our ref: 1785313 25 May 2021

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 10 May 2021 and which states:

"Dear Isle of Man Constabulary, I am writing to make a freedom of information request for all the information to which I am entitled under the relevant Freedom of Information provisions. I am an Isle of Man resident. Please send me: 1) Information regarding the number of calls to licensed premises on the Isle of Man in the past 4 years where an assault on either a Licensee, their staff or any of their agents was part of the reason for the call. 2) Information regarding how many of these calls lead to an investigation into a potential crime. 3) How many of these calls led to an arrest of a culprit 4) How many of these offenders were dealt with by police caution(or lesser means) or did not end up being dealt with by the judicial system by which I mean the courts and Attorney General's Office. 5) What levels of sentencing where applied to all of the cases of assault on a Licensee, their staff, or their agents within the period(If this is not available to yourselves please make me aware of where I can attain this information from). I believe that this is likely to be included with the Freedom of Information definition of 'all information held by authorities listed in Schedule 1 of the Act and which was created on or after 11 October 2011.' I would like the above information to be provided to me as electronic copies by email to me. If the files are too large to transfer by email, I am happy to attend your offices with a USB stick. If you prefer alternative arrangements, please contact me to discuss.

If this request is too wide or unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that Manx law requires you to advise and assist requesters. If any of this information is already is already publicly available, please advise and assist me to locate the information I am seeking, with page references and URLs if necessary. If the release of any of this information is prohibited on the grounds of breach of confidence, I ask that you supply me with copies of the confidentiality agreement and remind you that information should generally not be treated as confidential if such an agreement has not been signed. I understand that you are required to respond to my request within the 20 working days after you receive this letter. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you."

Our response to your request is as follows: I have detailed below the information that is being released to you. Results Initially baseline data was analysed for the last four crime years (April-March) to identify all events recorded which were both:

at an address identified as licensed premises, and opened or closed as ‘violence against the person’. Notes • Some potentially relevant events may possibly have been excluded, where either the event location was not specified as at the licensed premises, or where the event was both opened and closed without recording that it involved an assault. • The majority of the baseline events related to violence against and between customers, rather than assaults on staff. • It was not straightforward to identify which of these assault incidents explicitly involved licensees or their staff as victims. This required extensive further detailed review. • Not all incidents to which the police were called required a preliminary investigation to be recorded before charging an offender. • Not all offenders identified and dealt with required an arrest record. • Sentencing (including non-court disposals) has been collated for the events identified as relating to assaults on licensing staff, even if the conviction only related to a related offence, such as disorderly behaviour on licensed premises. • For a few incidents more than one offender was prosecuted (five relevant events) – the statistics relate to events, not offenders. • AIRS is a police scheme: Alcohol Intervention Referral Scheme

Question 2017- 2018 2018- 2019 2019- 2020 2020- 2021 Baseline Assault Events at licensed premises 69 96 98 84 1. Assaults involving licensee or staff as victims 12 17 12 11 2. Investigations recorded of events in 1. 6 10 11 10 3. Assaults in 1. resulting in arrests 6 10 11 8 4. Non-Court Disposals 4 3 2 1 5. Sentencing of prosecutions. 2 8 10 6 Prosecution Sentence Offence 2017- 2018 2018- 2019 2019- 2020 2020- 2021 COMMON ASSAULT

2

Imprisonment GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM

1

COMMON ASSAULT

1 Suspended Sentence DISORDERLY BEHAVIOUR ON LICENSED PREMISES

1 COMMON ASSAULT 1 2 3 1 DISORDERLY BEHAVIOUR ON LICENSED PREMISES

2 2

Fine DRUNK ON LICENSED PREMISES

1

COMMON ASSAULT

1 3

DISORDERLY BEHAVIOUR ON LICENSED PREMISES

1

Community Service Order RESIST A PEACE OFFICER 1

COMMON ASSAULT

1 DRUNK & DISORDERLY IN A PUBLIC PLACE

1 Court Disposal ongoing WOUNDING WITH INTENT

1 COMMON ASSAULT 2

1 DISORDERLY BEHAVIOUR ON LICENSED PREMISES 1 2 1

Caution DRUNK & DISORDERLY IN A PUBLIC PLACE

1

Non Court Disposal AIRS DRUNK & DISORDERLY IN A PUBLIC PLACE 1

1

No sanction recorded against an offender 6 6

4

Please quote the reference number 1785313 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely