FOI - Malicious communications to the Mayor [Nov 2022]

Your request

I have questions about people sending malicious communications (including death threats and discriminatory language) to the Mayor of London (Sadiq Khan) by letter, email and messages on social media including the London.gov.uk website, from May 2016 to present day. The data shall include breakdown by year:

1. How many malicious emails have been sent to the Mayor's office email address?
2. How often do the Mayor receive malicious communications on social media, including Facebook and Twitter?
3. How many people got visited by the police?
4. How many people got arrested?
5. How many people got no further action?
6. How many people got cautioned?
7. How many people got convicted?
8. How many people got sentenced to prison?
9. How many people got suspended sentence?
10. Can you list the countries (non-UK) where people sent malicious communications to the London Mayor?
11. Can you list the countries (non-UK) where people were arrested (and convicted in court) for sending malicious communications to the Mayor?
12. What measures have been taken to filter malicious communications sent to the Mayor's office?

Our response

Questions 1 to 2, 12

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with a full response to this part of your request. The amount of emails we log onto our correspondence management system is approximately a 1:3 ratio owing to the duplicated nature of the correspondence or spam we receive. For example, we could receive the same copied body of text (which may or may not be abusive in nature) thousands of times in relation to a particular campaign.

For context the volume of correspondence uploaded to our correspondence management system during 2020 was 33,164. The total correspondence received for 2021, we estimate would be over 90,000.

Of the correspondence we have tagged as ‘Abusive / Racist’ on our correspondence management system, please see the following breakdown for each year:

2016  83
2017  301
2018  167
2019  53
2020  85

This information is however caveated for the reasons explained above and should not be taken as a complete picture. Further instances of malicious communications may also just be marked as ‘No Further Action’ for other reasons.

We do not routinely collect data on social media abuse. Abuse of public figures is very much in evidence on social media and is a matter of concern. You may be interested in Intimidation in Public Life: A Review by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
For further information please also refer to the GLA’s social media acceptable usage guidelines.

Questions 3 to 11

The GLA does not hold this information. Abuse and threats aimed at the GLA and its representatives can be reported via several different and non-GLA channels. You would need to contact the Metropolitan Police Service for this information.

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting the reference MGLA110221-5761.