s24 and 25 Immigration Act 1971 offences where age is disputed
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we request the following information:
1. In determining whether to prosecute individuals for s24 and 25 Immigration Act 1971 offences, confirm whether and how the CPS records whether an individual’s age has been assessed by the Home Office and/or whether an individual is age disputed (i.e. their date of birth (dob) has been determined by an authority such as the Home Office or a local authority to be a different dob to their claimed dob);
2. In considering whether to prosecute an individual, confirm whether and how the CPS determines their age in circumstances where the individual has been age assessed by the Home Office and/or is age disputed;
3. Disclose any CPS policy, procedure or guidance for the assessment of age by the CPS.
Response
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) publishes Youth crime Legal Guidance on its website. The ‘Children as suspects and defendants’ guidance contains information that is relevant to the request. The guidance is withheld under section 21 of the FOIA – Information accessible by other means. Please see the attached section 17 notice (reproduced below) for an explanation of the exemption.
Under section 16 of the FOIA, we have a duty to advise what, if any, information may assist with the request. Information relevant to the request can be found within the guidance under the heading ‘Determining the age of the offender.’ The guidance, which should be considered in conjunction with the Code for Crown Prosecutors (The Code for Crown Prosecutors | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk)) can be accessed via the following link; Children as suspects and defendants. Case files should be endorsed by a Prosecutor accordingly where an individual has been age assessed by the Home Office and/or age is disputed.
Section 17 Notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
WITHHOLDING INFORMATION
Section 21 states Information accessible to applicant by other means.
1. Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 21 is exempt information.
2. For the purposes of subsection 1 —
a) Information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment, and
b) Information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.
3. For the purposes of subsection 1, information which is held by a public authority and does not fall within subsection 2(b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the information is available from the public authority itself on request, unless the information is made available in accordance with the authority’s publication scheme and any payment required is specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme.
Section 21 is an absolute exemption which means there is no requirement to carry out a public interest test if the requested information is exempt.