Brian
By e-mail to: [FOI #26799 email]
Our Reference: 47030
29th March 2010
Dear Brian,
I am writing with reference to your request for information regarding the number of
staff paid more than £65k, dated 12th February 2010.
Under Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act, you are required when
submitting a request, to provide a name and address for correspondence. Further
guidance from the Information Commissioners Office, clarifies this as your full
name. As you have only submitted a first name, this is not a valid request under
the Freedom of Information Act.
However, the guidance also suggests that a public authority should still consider
dealing with the request even though it is not valid. On this occasion, the request
has been dealt with in accordance with current FOIA legislation.
You asked for the following information:
Please tell me under FOI how many staff you have that are paid over
£65k. Just the number, not names. I'd also like the number for each
year since 2006.
You later clarified staff to be:-
…permanent staff, temporary staff, contractors, police officers and
consultants.
We can confirm that the NPIA holds some of the information falling within the
description specified in your request. However, we are unable to provide you with
the information you have requested as we consider the cost of complying with your
request would exceed the cost limit specified in regulations.
National Policing Improvement Agency
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act does not oblige a public authority
to comply with a request for information if the cost of complying exceeds a cost
limit, known as the ‘appropriate limit’, which is specified in the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. For
public authorities such as the NPIA, this cost limit has been set at £450. These
costs are limited to those that an authority reasonably expects to incur in:
• determining whether it holds the information requested,
• locating the information or documents containing the information,
• retrieving such information or documents, and
• extracting the information from the document containing it.
The Regulations also specify that costs which are attributable to the time spent by
persons undertaking any of the activities mentioned above are to be calculated at a
standard rate of £25 per hour. This represents the estimated cost of one person
spending a maximum of 2½ working days dealing with a request.
The NPIA receives invoices for seconded police officers by the police forces. These
invoices contain salary information of that officer, together with other billed items
such as expense claims and any admin fees added by that force.
As the NPIA has 10,000 invoices regarding seconded police officers, it would take
roughly 1 minute to scan each invoice and extract the relevant information. This
would take 167 hours to complete this exercise and exceeds the cost limit.
However, we are able to extract information on permanent NPIA staff within cost,
although this will be from April 2007 when the NPIA was created. I can’t comment
on any exemptions that many apply at this stage, but can you please let me know if
you would like this information?
Please note that for temporary staff, contractors and consultants the NPIA receives
invoices from their agency or company concerned so we are unable to provide any
details on how much these individuals receive.
Your right to complain
We take our responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act seriously but, if
you feel your request has not been properly handled or you are otherwise
dissatisfied with the outcome of your request, you have the right to complain. We
will investigate the matter and endeavour to reply within 3 – 6 weeks. You should
write to:
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© NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency)
National Policing Improvement Agency
David Horne
Director of Resources
National Policing Improvement Agency
10-18 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0NN
E-mail:
[email address]
If you are still dissatisfied following our internal review, you have the right, under
section 50 of the Act, to complain directly to the Information Commissioner. Before
considering your complaint, the Information Commissioner would normally expect
you to have exhausted the complaints procedures provided by the NPIA. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
FOI Compliance Team (complaints)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Further information about the NPIA is routinely published on our website at
www.npia.police.uk or through our publication scheme. If you require any further
assistance in connection with this request please contact us at our address above.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Woodgate
IKS Advisor
National Policing Improvement Agency
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© NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency)
