FOI 412/25

REQUEST

 

Copies of all SWP policy and training documentation, including guidance and instructions issued to officers and civilian staff, from 1 January 2022 onwards, covering:

 

The creation, recording, storage, handling and release to involved parties of information relating to incidents.

 

All such information held in any format including, but not limited to:

 

Handwritten entries in notebooks and internal SWP notes, memos etc.

 

Electronically stored reports and emails.

 

Hard copy or electronic documents and images.

 

Clarification: I would like to see the policy and training documentation which describes the SWP procedures to be followed:

 

1. When creating an information item (document, note, memo, video, picture etc – including officers’ notebooks and internal emails).

 

2. When formally recording the existence of those items as part of an incident report and the circumstances under which some items may not form part of a report.

 

3. When storing such items, whether electronically or in hard copy – including retention times and processes for archiving, deletion and destruction.

 

4. When handling those items – access controls, ability to amend/update items.

 

5. When such items are sent from one person or department to another in any format.

 

6. When such items of information are released or considered for release to complainants, those against whom complaints are made, victims, offenders or members of the public.

 

RESPONSE

 

Your request for information has now been considered and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested.       

 

In relation to your request, the following exemption applies:

Section 12(2) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit

 

Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”

I can confirm that the cost of determining whether any information relative to this request is or isn’t held is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond therefore we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12 (2) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.

The regulations can be located @

 

www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2004/20043244.htm

 

This request is very broad and covers both national and force wide guidance and documentation. We have already spent a considerable amount of time consulting with several departments. Our Information Governance (IG) Department have stated that whilst IG own the Overarching Data Protection Policy and Guidance around sharing information these will be dependent on the parties involved,  creation and recording of incidents is subject to national requirements. The information that you require is not held in a retrievable format. It could be held in a number of different formats by a number of departments. There is no effective search that could be carried out that would effectively answer these questions.

 

Whilst I cannot quantify exactly how long this would take it would most certainly exceed the 18 hours stipulated by the regulations to provide the data requested.

 

It is estimated that the cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the "appropriate level" as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

 

In the case of the police service, the appropriate limit is £450 which has been calculated to equate to a total of 18 hours of work.

 

 

If any part of the request exceeds the fees limit, then Section 12 applies to the whole request.

 

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a refusal notice.

 

As a gesture of good will this information has been supplied outside of the Freedom of Information Act. This information has been supplied outside of the Freedom of Information Act. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fee’s regulations for the remainder of the request.

 

Leadership. Standards. Performance. | College of Policing

 

Police information and records management: code of practice - GOV.UK