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:
1) the names of the companies you use for interpreting/translation services when a defendant does not speak English.
2) How much has been spent on the above services, in total, since April 2015.
In Response:
We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted within Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.
I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.
1. As the information you have requested is accessible by other means I have not provided you with a copy of the information and will rely on Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You should therefore consider this a refusal for your request.
I have provided an explanation to this exemption below.
Section 21 (1) - Information accessible by other means
Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant is exempt information.
This information is freely available as it is published and open to public view and can be found on the Bluelight Procurement Database, link provided below.
https://www.blpd.gov.uk/foi/foi.aspx
2.The amount spent on interpreting and translation services is as follows;
2017/18 £92,581
2016/17 £174,599
2015/16 £150,533
2016/17 £145,941
