Racist Abuse of Staff 2022 to Sept 2025
Reference: 25-26338
Date response sent: 14/11/2025
Details of enquiry
- The number of reported incidents of racism/racist abuse towards staff by patients in 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first nine months of 2025. Can the data be categorised in calendar years please.
- From the figures given in question 1., can you specify how many of the reported incidents were a) verbal and b) physical assaults please. Can the data be split with a) and b) columns and categorised in calendar years please.
Response sent
The data you have requested for the period, 2022 to September 2025 is presented in the tables below, where we have masked low numbers with the symbol ‘≤5’, which indicates where numbers are equal to 5 or less than 5.
The Trust follows guidance by the Information Commissioner and NHS England, established to not provide exact data where the numbers are smaller than 6 as this may lead to identification of individuals.
The Trust has engaged exemption from releasing exact low numbers in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) Section 40(2) (Information which constitutes the personal data of any person other than the applicant, where disclosure would not be permitted under GDPR, thereby breaching GDPR Principle (a): Lawfulness, fairness and transparency.
As this is an absolute exemption, we do not have to apply the Public Interest Test when engaging this exemption
The Trust recognises a high level of interest from public in how the public purse has been spent on services, and must balance this against disclosure of any small numbers and the years in which these instances occurred, which – whilst not directly identifying individuals, would nevertheless give rise to a disclosure of personal data, as follows:
- Although the year alone is not personal data, we have also to consider whether other information that is already available, or may become available, to any member of the public, could be combined with the data requested so as to enable identification of the individual(s) concerned.
- There is a high chance of recognition/identification of particular individuals/patients by fellow patients/colleagues and/or others from the low numbers.
- This masking of low numbers is not a just a question of considering the means reasonably likely to be used by general public, but also the means likely to be used by a determined person with a particular reason to want to identify individuals from data in the public domain now or in the future, and/or gained from other sources.
- The number of reported incidents of racism/racist abuse towards staff by patients in 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first nine months of 2025. Can the data be categorised in calendar years please.
| Reported Incidents 2022-25 which Included
the Word ‘Racist’ in the Incident Description |
|||||
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 Jan-Sept | Total Incidents | |
| Totals | 6 | ≤5 | ≤5 | 6 | 17 |
- From the figures given in question 1., can you specify how many of the reported incidents were a) verbal and b) physical assaults please. Can the data be split with a) and b) columns and categorised in calendar years please.
| Verbal and Physical Assaults 2022-25 which Included
the Word ‘Racist’ in the Incident Description |
|||||
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 Jan-Sept | Total Incidents | |
| a) Verbal | ≤5 | 0 | ≤5 | ≤5 | 9 |
| b) Physical | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 | ≤5 | 8 |
| Totals | 6 | ≤5 | ≤5 | 6 | 17 |