FOI 1027/26
REQUEST
For the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025, please provide:
- The number of police officers injured while on duty who required admission to hospital.
- Of those officers, how many returned to work on their next scheduled shift.
Please provide a yearly breakdown.
RESPONSE
Your request for information has now been considered, and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested.
Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires South Wales Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you 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.
In relation to your request, the following exemption applies:
Section 12(1) – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit.
At South Wales Police we monitor and collate statistical data on crimes, incidents and other data relevant to our daily business. The predominant purpose of this is to identifying pattern and trends, so resource allocation and policies can be managed to ensure public safety.
The data you have requested is not routinely collated in the format that would easily answer your query therefore we consulted with our HR (Human Resources) Department who advised there are 520 records whereby an officer has required admission to hospital within the requested time frame.
To answer Q2 we would have to manually review each record to establish if the officer returned to work on their next scheduled shift.
We estimate it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to interrogate each record.
We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 86 hours.
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.
Excess cost removes the forces obligation under the Freedom of Information Act, however under Section 16 – Duty to provide advice and assistance, an authority is required to offer an applicant the opportunity to redefine their request within the cost limit. If you were to remove Q2 we may be able to assist with your request.