FOI 581-2025 / May 2025 / Sexual communication
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 581-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 29th May 2025 as follows:
Q1. Please tell me the number of recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, (Home Office recording code 71/17) recorded from (and including) April 1st 2024 until (and including) March 31st, 2025.
Q2. Where possible I would like to know the age and gender of the victim, broken down into age groups: 11 and under, 12-15, 16 and over.
Q3. Please tell me the age and gender of the youngest victim.
Q4. Where possible I would like to know the total number of perpetrators linked to these offences.
Q5. Please tell me all the forms of communication (i.e. which social media or messaging platform such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, TikTok etc.) that have been recorded as having been used in connection with recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, from (and including) April 1st 2024 , until (and including) March 31st 2025.
Q6. How many offences, where the means of communication was known, took place on private messaging services?
I suggest a table as follows:
|
Total number of offences |
Number of female victims |
Number of male victims |
Age and gender of the youngest victim |
Method of communication used |
Number of times each method was used |
Private messaging platform? |
||
|
|
11 and under |
|
11 and under |
|
|
|||
|
12-15 |
|
12-15 |
|
|
||||
|
16 and over |
|
16 and over |
|
|
||||
Where the number of victims is greater than zero but fewer than five, please use a * if necessary, rather than rejecting my request on the grounds of protecting personal information.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
When considering the data please note:
- A search of the crime recording system was conducted for ‘Engage in Sexual Communication with a Child’ crimes, Home Office Code 071/17, recorded between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025. This does not include attempt offences.
- A crime will not always have a victim or suspect role recorded, and some could have more than one such role. Therefore, the number of victims/suspects will not correlate with the number of crimes recorded.
- The numerical data presented below is an unaudited snapshot of unpublished data sourced from "live" systems and is subject to the interpretation of the original request by the individual extracting the data.
Q1. Please tell me the number of recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, (Home Office recording code 71/17) recorded from (and including) April 1st 2024 until (and including) March 31st, 2025.
Q1 response: 34
Q2. Where possible I would like to know the age and gender of the victim, broken down into age groups: 11 and under, 12-15, 16 and over.
Q2 response: I can advise that the requested information is held; however, it is not considered suitable for disclosure in the format requested.
When refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt), Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Warwickshire Police to provide the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states that fact,
(b) specifies the exemption in question and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
The exemption applicable in this case is:
Section 40(2) Personal Information
Section 40 is an absolute class-based exemption, which does not require evidence of the harm disclosure would cause and does not require consideration of a public interest test. That being said, where Section 40(2) is engaged, in order to make the exemption absolute there needs to be evidence that a Data Protection Principle would be breached by disclosure.
This exemption is engaged where disclosure of information relates to personal data of a third party or could lead to the identification of an individual, either from that information alone or combined with any other information from within the Police Service or public domain.
In this case, due to low numbers, providing a breakdown by age group alongside each gender is likely to lead to the identification of an individual. Such a disclosure would breach individuals’ rights under the Data Protection Act 2018, in particular Article 5(1) of the GDPR, which states that personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
This letter serves as a refusal notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act for the requested format. Instead, the information has been provided in uncorrelated tables, by age group and then by gender. Please see the information I am able to provide set out below.
|
Victim Age Group |
|
|
11 and under |
6 |
|
12 to 15 |
13 |
|
16 and over |
0 |
|
Total |
19 |
|
Victim Gender |
|
|
Female |
9 |
|
Male |
8 |
|
Unknown |
2 |
|
Total |
19 |
Q3. Please tell me the age and gender of the youngest victim.
Q3 response: I can advise that the requested information is held; however, not all the information is considered suitable for disclosure.
When refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt), Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Warwickshire Police to provide the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states that fact,
(b) specifies the exemption in question and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
The exemption applicable in this case is:
Section 40(2) Personal Information
Section 40 is an absolute class-based exemption, which does not require evidence of the harm disclosure would cause and does not require consideration of a public interest test. That being said, where Section 40(2) is engaged, in order to make the exemption absolute there needs to be evidence that a Data Protection Principle would be breached by disclosure.
This exemption is engaged where disclosure of information relates to personal data of a third party or could lead to the identification of an individual, either from that information alone or combined with any other information from within the Police Service or public domain.
In this case, providing both the gender and exact age together is likely to lead to the identification of an individual. Such a disclosure would breach individuals’ rights under the Data Protection Act 2018, in particular Article 5(1) of the GDPR, which states that personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
This letter serves as a refusal notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act for the requested information. Instead, the gender has been provided, however the exact age has been refused. Please see the information I am able to provide set out below.
|
Gender - Female |
|
Age falls within the 11 and under category |
Q4. Where possible I would like to know the total number of perpetrators linked to these offences.
Q4 response: 25 suspects.
Q5. Please tell me all the forms of communication (i.e. which social media or messaging platform such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, TikTok etc.) that have been recorded as having been used in connection with recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, from (and including) April 1st 2024 , until (and including) March 31st 2025.
Q5 response: Please be advised that the Incident Summary/Initial Modus Operandi has been manually reviewed for each of the 34 crimes identified at Q1, for any mention of the form of communication used. No further review has been undertaken to determine whether additional forms of communication were identified during an investigation or to verify the accuracy of the information detailed in the Incident Summary/Initial Modus Operandi.
|
Chatib |
|
Discord |
|
Facebook Messenger |
|
PalTalk |
|
Rec Room |
|
|
|
Roblox |
|
Snapchat |
|
Texting |
Q6. How many offences, where the means of communication was known, took place on private messaging services?
Q7 response: 30
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible; however, the data is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, therefore care should be taken to ensure data collection processes, and their inevitable limitations are considered when interpreting the data.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB