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. Please confirm how many FTE Uplift programme officers were recruited additional to your establishment at 31 March 2020 in:
a. 2020/21
b. 2021/22
c. 2022/23
2. Of that FTE number how many have been allocated as at 31 March 2022 to:
a. Local Policing
b. Criminal Justice
c. Roads Policing
d. Operational Support
e. Intelligence
f. Investigations
g. Public Protection
h. Investigative Support
i. Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs).
j. Support Services
3. Of that FTE number how many do you anticipate will be allocated after 31 March 2022 to:
a. Local Policing
b. Criminal Justice
c. Roads Policing
d. Operational Support
e. Intelligence
f. Investigations
g. Public Protection
h. Investigative Support
i. Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs).
j. Support Services
4. Please indicate the expected impact on the following performance measures of the Force as a result of the Uplift programme by March 2023: (Please give the 2019/20 Result and the 2022/23 Anticipated Result)
a. Measure
b. Overall operational capacity as measured by % of total officer FTEs on duty;
c. % of total officers visible;
d. Rate of detection per recorded crime;
e. Total Recorded crime;
f. Recorded crimes per visible officer;
g. Charges/Summonses per visible officer;
h. Miles per fleet vehicle;
i. Overtime (Average cost per officer);
j. Sickness (Average days per FTE officer);
k. Response time to emergency incidents;
l. Victim Satisfaction;
m. Repeat Victimisation;
n. Road Traffic Casualties;
5. Please provide any report the Force has made to the Police and Crime Commissioners Police and Crime Panel (or similarly titled body) describing the operational impact of the Uplift programme on Policing in the Force’s area. The date range for a report would start on 1 April 2019 to the current date.”
In Response:
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the People Systems 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 as follows.
1. As information on how many additional FTE Uplift programme officers were recruited to Northumbria Police is already available and 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 this part of 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.
Data regarding the Police Officer Uplift Programme is published on the Gov.uk website and the link to the statistics is provided below.
Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
2. a. Local Policing: 324
b. Criminal Justice: 10
c. Roads Policing: -14
d. Operational Support: 6
e. Intelligence: 6
f. Investigations: -14
g. Public Protection: -58
h. Investigative Support: N/A
i. Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) (NERSOU): 59
j. Support Services (Support functions): 151
3 & 4. These questions are not valid FOI requests as they are asking for opinion and not recorded information. We can advise that S8(1)(c) is relevant and a link to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO’s) website which provides guidance on how to submit a valid request has been provided below.
https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/official-information
5. As the information you have requested at this point 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 this part of 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.
Papers and agendas for the Police and Crime Panel are available on-line, and can be accessed from Gateshead Council’s website. A link to which has been provided below.
https://www.gateshead.gov.uk/article/3627/Northumbria-Police-and-Crime-Panel.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.
Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.
The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.
