Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
- The number of police officers currently assigned to your fraud squad or economic crime command/department and the number of officers assigned to that fraud squad or economic crime command/department in calendar 2015 and 2011.
- The number of fraud complaints or referrals received in calendar 2021, 2015 and 2010.
- The number of fraud investigations begun in calendar 2021, 2015 and 2010.
- The number of current fraud investigations.
- The number of current fraud prosecutions in which the force is involved and the number of such fraud prosecutions begun in 2021.
After we advised data prior to 2010 was not held in its entirety you clarified ‘Please provide the earliest full year after 2010.’ Which we are taking as 2011
In Response:
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development, People Services and Criminal Justice Departments of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held in part by Northumbria Police, however cannot be disclosed for the following reasons.
The information requested is not already held statistically nor is it held in a format that can be extracted from systems within the permitted 18 hours. This is particularly relevant at points 3 and 5. To provide a response at these points have been assessed as exceeding the 18 hours in their own right and as such Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act would apply. This section does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimated that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit of 18 hours, equating to £450.00
You should consider this to be a refusal notice under Section 17 of the Act for your request.
As part of your request would exceed the prescribed limit, as defined by the Act, there is no requirement for Northumbria Police to provide a response to the remaining parts of your request. However, in order to provide you with some assistance, under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, an initial assessment of the information that may be provided within the time constraints would be the remaining questions
If this would be useful, you may wish to refine and resubmit your request accordingly.
