Data Protection Act compliance statistics

Dear Mr Jason Sands

Freedom of Information Request Reference No: 2009110003853
I write in connection with your request for information which was
received by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) on 17/11/2009. I note
you seek access to the following information:

* "Dear Sir or Madam, Please provide the follow information
about MPS responses to Subject Access Requests (SARs) made under
the Data Protection Act. (1) How many SARs were received by
the MPS in the past five years? (2) What were the minimum,
maximum and average number of days taken to comply with SARs in
each of those years? (3) How many complaints were received
from requesters about SARs in each of those years? (4) How
many staff did the Public Access Office have dealing with SARs in
each of those years? Yours faithfully, Jason Sands."

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act). You will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act,
subject to the information not being exempt or containing a reference
to a third party. In some circumstances the MPS may be unable to
achieve this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and
given a revised time-scale at the earliest opportunity.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to
another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest
possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

COMPLAINT RIGHTS

Your attention is drawn to the attached sheet, which details your
right of complaint.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
write or contact Peter Deja on telephone number 0207 161 3640 quoting
the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

Peter Deja
Policy and support officer
COMPLAINT RIGHTS

Are you unhappy with how your request has been handled or do you think
the decision is incorrect?

You have the right to require the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to
review their decision.

Prior to lodging a formal complaint you are welcome and encouraged to
discuss the decision with the case officer that dealt with your
request.

Ask to have the decision looked at again ***

The quickest and easiest way to have the decision looked at again is
to telephone the case officer that is nominated at the end of your
decision letter.

That person will be able to discuss the decision, explain any issues
and assist with any problems.

Complaint

If you are dissatisfied with the handling procedures or the decision
of the MPS made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act)
regarding access to information you can lodge a complaint with the MPS
to have the decision reviewed.

Complaints should be made in writing and addressed to:

FOI Complaint
Public Access Office
PO Box 57192
London
SW6 1SF

In all possible circumstances the MPS will aim to respond to your
complaint within 40 working days.
The Information Commissioner

After lodging a complaint with the MPS if you are still dissatisfied
with the decision you may make application to the Information
Commissioner for a decision on whether the request for information has
been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Act.

For information on how to make application to the Information
Commissioner please visit their website at
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. Alternatively, phone or write to:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone: 01625 545 700

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Dear Mr Sands

Freedom of Information Request Reference No: 2009110003853

I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) on 17/11/2009. I note you seek
access to the following information:

* "Please provide the follow information about MPS responses to Subject
Access Requests (SARs) made under the Data Protection Act.

(1) How many SARs were received by the MPS in the past five years?
(2) What were the minimum, maximum and average number of days taken to
comply with SARs in each of those years?
(3) How many complaints were received from requesters about SARs in each
of those years?
(4) How many staff did the Public Access Office have dealing with SARs in
each of those years?"

Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within the MPS
to locate information relevant to your request.

EXTENT OF SEARCHES TO LOCATE INFORMATION

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted
at the Public Access Office (PAO).

RESULT OF SEARCHES

The searches located records relevant to your request. The searches
failed to locate any information relevant to question 4 your request,
therefore, the information you have requested is not held by the MPS.

DECISION

I have today decided to:

* disclose records numbered 1 and 2 in full;
* fully exempt records number 3 pursuant to the provisions of section 12
(cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit) of the Act.

REASONS FOR DECISION

I am relying on the following exemption for question 3:

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 any provision in
part II relating to the duty to confirm or deny is relevant to the
request or 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.

Section 12 (2) of the Act provides:

(2) Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its
obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the
estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the
appropriate limit.

It will not be possible to respond to question 3 of your request
within the cost threshold. This information is not retrievable within
the cost limit of 18 hours as in order to answer these questions one
would have to individually inspect thousands of Subject Access
Request's (SAR's) received by the MPS. We estimate that the cost of
complying with this request would exceed the appropriate limit. The
appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for agencies
outside central Government; this is set at **450.00. This represents
the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours [at a rate of **25
per hour] in determining whether the MPS holds the information, and
locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Please see below, answers to questions 1 and 2 of your FOIA request.

(1) How many SARs were received by the MPS in the past five years?
Please see the attached document detailing the number of SAR's
received over the past 5 years.

(2) What were the minimum, maximum and average number of days taken to
comply with SARs in each of those years?
The attached document which contains answers to question 2.

Whilst it is unfortunate that the above cases have significantly gone
over the 40 calendar days the figures show that this is more the
exception rather than the norm. MPS data is often complex and
sensitive due to the nature of the work we undertake. In light of this
requests for access to personal data under the Data Protection Act
1998 requires consultation with our operational and partnership
colleagues to ensure that by disclosing information we do not unduly
undermine any investigations or proceedings or cause any harm to
individuals or third parties. Equally, the volumes of data requested
can at times take a considerable amount of case working time to
complete. With such cases we will inform the applicant of the delay
and the reasons for this delay. Whilst we have the opportunity to
refuse cases on the basis that the processing would be
disproportionate, this refusal is purely applied on a case-by-case
exceptional basis, therefore, our default position is to process all
the requests unless the request is unnecessarily burdensome on
publicly funded resources.

(4) How many staff did the Public Access Office have dealing with SARs
in each of those years
As explained above, searches failed to locate information relevant to
question 4 of your request as it is not recorded. Therefore the
information you have requested is not held by the MPS.

Under section 16 duty to assist, I am able to provide you with the
following information which may be of interest to you. Between 2nd
September 09 and 2nd December 09 there were an average of 15 case
workers dealing with SAR's. Please note that the role of a case
worker encompasses both SAR work as well as insurance claims.

Please see the below link with further information -

http://www.met.police.uk/information/fur...

COMPLAINT RIGHTS

If you are dissatisfied with this response please read the attached
paper entitled Complaint Rights which explains how to make a
complaint.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
contact me via the address at the top of this letter, quoting the
reference number above.

Yours sincerely

A Duncan
Policy & Support Team

In complying with their statutory duty under sections 1 and 11 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release the enclosed information,
the Metropolitan Police Service 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
MPS Directorate of Legal Services, 1st Floor (Victoria Block), New
Scotland Yard, Victoria, London, SW1H 0BG.
COMPLAINT RIGHTS

Are you unhappy with how your request has been handled or do you think
the decision is incorrect?

You have the right to require the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to
review their decision.

Prior to lodging a formal complaint you are welcome and encouraged to
discuss the decision with the case officer that dealt with your
request.

Ask to have the decision looked at again ***

The quickest and easiest way to have the decision looked at again is
to telephone the case officer that is nominated at the end of your
decision letter.

That person will be able to discuss the decision, explain any issues
and assist with any problems.

Complaint

If you are dissatisfied with the handling procedures or the decision
of the MPS made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act)
regarding access to information you can lodge a complaint with the MPS
to have the decision reviewed.

Complaints should be made in writing and addressed to:

FOI Complaint
Public Access Office
PO Box 57192
London
SW6 1SF

In all possible circumstances the MPS will aim to respond to your
complaint within 40 working days.
The Information Commissioner

After lodging a complaint with the MPS if you are still dissatisfied
with the decision you may make application to the Information
Commissioner for a decision on whether the request for information has
been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Act.

For information on how to make application to the Information
Commissioner please visit their website at
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. Alternatively, phone or write to:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone: 01625 545 700

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