FOI 549/26

Request

 

1. POLICIES

Please provide a copy of your current maternity policy and paternity policy for police staff (i.e. non-officer, civilian employees).

 

2. STAFF NUMBERS - MATERNITY AND PATERNITY LEAVE For each of the last five financial years (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24), please provide:

 

1. a) The number of police staff members who commenced maternity leave.
2. b) The number of police staff members who commenced paternity leave.

 

Please provide figures for police staff only, excluding police officers, unless your force does not make this distinction.

 

3. RETENTION FOLLOWING MATERNITY OR PATERNITY LEAVE (2020-2025) For the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2025, of those police staff members who took maternity or paternity leave:

 

1. a) How many returned to work following their leave?
2. b) Of those who returned, how many remained employed by your force as of the date of this request?

 

 

Response

 

We consulted with our Human Resources department who have provided the following information regarding your request.

 

Question 1

 

Please see document entitled ‘maternity-and-pregnancy-policy-v9_Redacted’.

 

In relation to this part of your request, the following exemption applies:

 

Section 40(2) - Personal Information 

  

Section 40(2) is an absolute class based exemption and therefore the authority is not required to consider the public interest in disclosure. 

  

The Data Protection Act covers processing of personal data about a living individual.  Personal data means data which relate to a living individual who can be identified- 

  

1. from those data, or 
2. from those data and other information, which is in the possession of,or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.

  

Information will “relate to” a person if it is about them, linked to them, has some biographical significance for them, is used to inform decisions affecting them, has them as its main focus or impacts on them in any way.

If we disclosed these details, this would provide significant detail which could identify an individual and would breach the first principle of the Data Protection Act 2018. 

  

In accordance with the Act, this letter represents a refusal notice for this part of your request. 

 

 

Question 2a

 

Financial Year	Headcount
April 2019 to March 2020	48
April 2020 to March 2021	50
April 2021 to March 2022	44
April 2022 to March 2023	57
April 2023 to March 2024	76
Total	275

 

 

Question 2b

 

HR have advised we do not have a report in the system which provides this information.

 

 

Question 3a

 

All staff have returned to work following their maternity leave.

 

Question 3b

 

227 are still employed as of the 8^th May 2026.