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 number of officers on restricted duties - as of January 17, 2023 - arising from allegations against them of sexual misconduct
2. The number of officers on restricted duties - as of January 17, 2023 - arising from allegations against them of racism
3. The number of officers - as of January 17, 2023 - who are awaiting the results of investigations arising from allegations against them of sexual misconduct
4. The number of officers - as of January 17, 2023 - who are awaiting the results of investigations arising from allegations against them of racism
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 with the Professional Standards Department 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 with the below caveats to be noted as follows.
• Data has been taken from internal records held within PSD for officers who are currently on restricted duties as of 17 January 2023.
• Information has also been extracted from systems and may be subject to the addition and deletion of complaints, complainants and subjects after the initial extraction of data used for the purposes of this request.
• Data has been checked for live allegations as of 17 January 2023 only in relation to Police officers.
• A key word search was also conducted under the allegation summary for the words racism and discrimination.
• Please note that the data has been presented in such a manner as to avoid the application of exemptions relevant under the Act (Section 40 – Personal Information) to withhold due to low numbers, and these will not be broken down further.
1-2. As of 17 January 2023 there are 6 Police officers on restricted duties in relation to allegations of sexual misconduct or racism.
3-4. As of 17 January 2023 there are 24 Police officers who are awaiting the results of investigations arising from allegations against them of sexual misconduct.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
