Pavement accidents

Dear Sir or Madam,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

We are writing further to your email of 3 December, in which you request
the disclosure of information under the provisions of the above Act.

Please note that Lancashire County Council will only hold information
about incidents where an individual has made a claim against the authority
due to injuries they have sustained from an alleged 'slip or trip' on a
publicly-maintained highway.  The County Council will not hold
information about any incidents which the individual did not bring to the
attention of the authority.

In light of the above, please can you advise whether you are happy to
proceed with your request for the number of persons who have made a claim
against the authority for broken bones sustained from an alleged 'slip or
trip' on a publicly-maintained highway?

Your request will be placed on hold until such time as we receive your
response to the above.

Should you have any queries regarding the above, do not hesitate to
contact.

Yours faithfully,

Freedom of Information Team

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

Tel. 01772 531116

Fax. 01772 530949

 

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Dear Sir or Madam,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email of 5 December; we will proceed with your request
on those terms.

Yours faithfully,

Freedom of Information Team

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

    

Tel. 01772 531116

Fax. 01772 530949

 

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Dear Sir or Madam,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

We are writing further to your email of 5 December, in which you requested
the disclosure of information under the provisions of the above Act.

We have now had a response from our colleagues in the Legal Services
support group.  They have advised that, unfortunately, collating the
information you have requested would incur a commitment of resources in
excess of the limit of £450 set by the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI No. 3244 of
2004), which equates to 18 hours of work. Section 12(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act provides that a public authority is not obliged to comply
with a request where to do so would exceed such a limit.

This is because the report that is produced by the software used only
provides sufficient detail to ascertain that the claim related to an
'incident' on a footway (as opposed to a carriageway), and does not
specify the nature of the incident, or any claimed injuries sustained by
the claimant.  The report of 'footway incidents' has returned over 6000
case files for the last 5 years.  Ascertaining which of those involved a
slip or trip that caused broken bones would require retrieval and scrutiny
of each of the 6000+ case files returned.  Such a task would obviously
require much longer than the 18 hours explained above.

We have been advised that we may be able to collate information of the
nature you are seeking if you vastly reduce the scope of your request,
perhaps by limiting it to a period of 2 or 3 months, or perhaps by
reference to a particular road within the County.  This will reduce the
number of claims caught by the scope of the request, subsequently reducing
the number of files that need to be scrutinised.  If you wish to resubmit
an amended request, do not hesitate to contact us.

We are sorry that we have been unable to assist further on this occasion,
but trust you understand the reasons.  In the event that you wish to
complain about the manner in which your enquiry has been handled, you
should write in the first instance to The Freedom of Information Officer,
Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall, Preston PR1 8XJ, or
email [1][Lancashire County Council request email]

If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner, whose contact details are as
follows:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700

Email: [2][email address]

Website: [3]http://www.ico.gov.uk

If you have any queries regarding our response, or you require any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

Tel: (01772) 531116

Fax: (01772) 530949

Email: [4][Lancashire County Council request email]

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Lancashire, a place where everyone matters

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References

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3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
4. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]