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 can you disclose all information you hold on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, otherwise commonly known as the PFLP?
2. Please can you disclose the number of Prevent referrals made by or to your organisation regarding the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, otherwise commonly known as the PFLP since 1st January 2012?
In Response:
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) guidelines state that:
A public authority must confirm or deny whether it holds the information requested unless the cost of this alone would exceed the appropriate limit.
I can neither confirm nor deny that the information you require is held by Northumbria Police as to actually determine if it is held would exceed the permitted 18 hours therefore Section 12(2) 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.
I have set out the reasons for this below.
Your request at point 1 asks for ‘all information you hold …’. To establish what information may be held in relation to your request for an indefinite time frame would far exceed the permitted 18 hour threshold. All locations/systems/means of correspondence/e mails/meetings etc would need to be searched to establish what, if anything was held specific to your request. This cannot be achieved within the specified 18 hours.
I can advise that had Section 12 not be applicable other exemptions would have been applied where relevant, including at point 2.
