Fleet - 1856/22

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:

May you please give me a list of the Northumbria Police Vehicle Fleet from January 1st-December 31st, 2022? That includes vehicles before January 1st, 2022 that are still used in 2022.

Details
-Date: January 1st-December 31st, 2022
1. Model Year
2. The Vehicle Make & Model
3. Type of Vehicle (Example-Saloon, Wagon etc)
4. Van's Wheelbase, Roof Size and Numbers of Wheels
5. Number of Doors (Example: 3-Door, 5-Door etc)
6. Registration Number Plate
7. The Role of the Vehicle (Including Firearms Support Unit)
8. Roof Number
9. Marked or Unmarked
10. The Year the Vehicle was Commissioned
11. Video Camera (Yes or No)

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 Fleet Department 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 nor is it held in a format that would allow its extraction from systems within the permitted 18 hours. Your request asks various questions relating to in excess of 640 vehicles. What may be held about each vehicle cannot be extracted from systems, if held, within the permitted 18 hour threshold. Additionally you ask for information from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 which would encompass detailed searches to be made to establish which vehicle/s were at which location and its use during that time frame, as locations may change, vehicles may be added and vehicles may be decommissioned within that time frame. 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.

Although excess cost removes the force's obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill and outside of the act, I have supplied information as attached, relative to your request, retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request neither does it bind Northumbria Police to any commitment that it will release information in such a manner in the future.

Had Section 12 not been fully applicable then other exemptions would have been considered and applied in regards to ARVs/Covert vehicles as well as registration details, as these are exempt from disclosure. Details of the full exemption for these points can be found on similar FOI submissions for fleet details as published on the Northumbria Police Disclosure Log should you be interested. In addition, as we have supplied make and model you may wish to refer to manufacturers details for wheelbase, roof size, and number of doors as this would be in the public domain.