Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations - 1403/20

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:

I am interested in information relating to injury awards pursuant to the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/932.

1. How many individuals currently receive injury awards from your force?

2. For each of the three years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/2020 please provide the number of police officers granted an injury award.

3. For each of the three years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/2020 please provide the amount paid to all those in receipt of injury awards.

4. For each of the three years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/2020 please provide the number of reviews carried out of injury awards.

5. For each of the three years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/2020 please provide the number of reviews that resulted in the level of pension:
i. remaining unchanged;
ii. increasing; and
iii. reducing.

6. For each of the three years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2020 please provide the number of individuals contacted regarding a review who did not answer the questionnaire sent to them in connection with their review.

7. Please provide a copy of the questionnaire sent to those in receipt of injury awards regarding their review.

8. Please provide the number of officers in receipt of an injury award (include those who were awarded injury benefit by another force) who currently work for your force, if any.

In Response:

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with both the Finance and Legal Services Departments of 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. 555

2. 2017/18 = 5
2018/19 = 4
2019/20 = 3

3. 2017/18 = £4,663,359.90
2018/19 = £4,878,710.81
2019/20 = £4,924,371.43

4-5. As the information you have requested at these points 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 those parts 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 has been asked for previously, released and is published on the Northumbria Police Disclosure Log. FOI 826/19 refers and the link to the Log is provided below. This information remains valid as no further review cases have been carried out since.

6. Former Officers return questionnaires in relation to review of an injury benefit in a sealed envelope for the attention of the Selected Medical Practitioner (SMP). We can only presume the sealed envelopes contain a completed questionnaire and therefore we are unable to answer this question.

However, in 2018 four former officers did not provide a sealed envelope in which to submit a questionnaire in relation to a review of injury benefits.

You may find our response to FOI 1086/19 of interest, and again this can be found on our Disclosure Log via the link provided below.

7. Please see the attached document for the most recent version of the questionnaire.

8. There are 4 former officers in receipt of an injury award who are now Northumbria Police staff.