Tuesday 29^th June 2010

Dear Ms Thorne,

FOI Reference No: FOI- 20104/80001

Thank you for your request for information received by West Yorkshire Police on 22^nd March 2010.

You requested the following information:

Could you please provide me with the total number of accidents which WY Police have either been called to attend, or have been notified of, either on or at junctions adjoining Chapel Street, Cross Green Lane or Green Lane in LS15 in Leeds.

For all those accidents you hold information on, could you please also provide me with any information you hold that indicates an analysis of or conclusion drawn as to why the accident occurred (ie. the vehicle was reported to be travelling above the speed limit, or the driver was above the legal limit for drink driving).

I can confirm that West Yorkshire Police do hold this data / information, however the information is held in the public domain and the data for 2009 will be available in August/September 2010. Information for previous years is already available and can be accessed at the following website:

http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingData/radTitles.asp

Please be aware that in order to download any data from this website you will be required to register with the site, agree to an additional agreement on the conditions of its use and there may also be a cost involved in the ordering of it.

Please see Appendix A for the full legislative explanation as to why West Yorkshire Police are unable to provide the information.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in dealing with your request. This is due to the large volume of Freedom of Information requests currently being dealt with by West Yorkshire Police.

COMPLAINT RIGHTS

If you are not satisfied with how this request has been handled or with the information provided, please read the advice notice attached to this letter. If you do wish to take up your right of complaint, please remember to quote the reference number above in any future correspondence.

Yours sincerely

Laura Mudd

Freedom of Information Project Officer

Steven Harding

Head of Information Management

The West Yorkshire Police in complying with their statutory duty under sections 1 and 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release the enclosed information will not breach the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. However, the rights of the copyright owner of the enclosed information will continue to be protected by law. Applications for the copyright owner's written permission to reproduce any part of the attached information should be addressed to The Force Solicitor, West Yorkshire Police Headquarters, PO Box 9, Laburnum Road, Wakefield WF1 3QP.

Appendix A

FOI Reference No: FOI- 20104/80001

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a statutory right of access to information held by public authorities. A public authority in receipt of a request must, if permitted, state under Section 1(a) of the Act, whether it holds the requested information and, if held, then communicate that information to the applicant under Section 1(b) of the Act.

The right of access to information is not without exception and is subject to a number of exemptions which are designed to enable public authorities to withhold information that is unsuitable for release. Importantly the Act is designed to place information into the public domain, that is, once access to information is granted to one person under the Act, it is then considered public information and must be communicated to any individual should a request be received.

DECISION

Your request for information has been considered and I regret to inform you that West Yorkshire Police cannot comply. This letter serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Section 17 of the Act provides:

(1) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is to any extent relying on a claim that information is exempt information must, within the time for complying with Section 1(1), give the applicant a notice which:-

(a) states the fact,

(b) specifies the exemption in question, and

(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

REASONS FOR DECISION

The reason that we are unable to provide you with this information is covered by the following exemption(s):

Section 22 - Information Intended for Future Publication (a qualified and class-based exemption):

I can confirm that West Yorkshire Police do hold this data / information, however the information is held in the public domain and the data for 2009 will be available in August/September 2010. Information for previous years is already available and can be accessed at the following website:

http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingData/radTitles.asp

Please be aware that in order to download any data from this website you will be required to register with the site, agree to an additional agreement on the conditions of its use and there may also be a cost involved in the ordering of it.

With the above qualified exemption I am obliged to conduct a public interest test to determine where the public interest lies in relation to maintaining the intended publication date or whether the circumstances of the case would warrant earlier disclosure. Here I lay out my considerations to help you understand how I reached my decision.

Factors in favour of early disclosure:

Early disclosure of the data would make it more current i.e. closer to the events to which it relates. It may also have an impact on public safety as the public may be more informed about accident locations.

Factors against early disclosure:

In order to supply information requested under the Freedom of Information Act, public authorities allocate resources to the location and retrieval of this data. The intention of section 22 exemption is to benefit authorities who proactively publish information. To constantly produce new and up-to-date elements of the currently published information, in order to satisfy an additional need outside of the annual schedule will render these exemptions less effective and remove the benefits of proactive publication.

West Yorkshire Police routinely collates the requested data which is then utilised nationally by the Department of Transport who subsequently send the data to the UK data archive website. This information is then published to facilitate greater awareness of road incidents. The range of information contained in the datasets is substantial and covers all details that you are seeking. In addition, it would not be in the public interest for Freedom of Information to be used to obtain information which can be effectively obtained under existing procedures, especially if to do so would undermine those procedures. For example, such as in this case, the reports have an associated fee under certain circumstances and is therefore an income generator for the owners of the UK data archive site. The release of the information to a requester before the normal intended date may be deemed unfair to other interested parties.

Bearing in mind that the public interest is defined as something of tangible benefit to the community as a whole and not what interests the public, in all circumstances of the case, I consider that on this occasion the public interest in maintaining the exemption and upholding the intended publication date of August/September 2010 outweighs the public interest in early disclosure of the information.

Please note that police forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures for capturing the data. For these reasons this response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with responses you may receive from other police forces.