Dear Sir or Madam,

I am trying to find information relating to the status of requests
for search warrants and the subsequent issuance or rejection
thereof.

Are the requests and/or the warrants themselves public records? Is
it possible to see individual requests/warrants or lists of
warrants sought, granted and/or rejected?

If these records are open to the public, can you please provide
information how they may be accessed, in particular what
information is required to view details relating to a specific
warrant.

Also, can you tell me what aggregate information is kept or
available: e.g. is information produced/published on the number of
requests made / accepted / rejected per month (or some other
period), and is this, or can this be, broken down by court location
and/or magistrate/judge and/or requesting party? Presumably if all
these records are kept in a computer database it would be possible
to get any such report, but I'm unsure what information is stored
and in what format, and whether any statistics are regularly
published or would need to be requested individually.

Thank you for your assistance,

Richard

August 1, 2008

Dear Mr. Jackson,

FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000

I write in connection with your request for information dated July 31, 2008 which was received by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on July 31, 2008. I note you seek access to the following information:

Status of requests for search warrants and the subsequent issuance or rejection thereof

This request will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. A response should be sent to you within 20 working days. The Freedom of Information team will advise you in writing if there are any delays in responding to your request and will keep you advised of progress.

In the event where the cost of complying with the request would exceed the "appropriate level", which is fixed at £450, as stated in the Freedom of Information Regulations 2004, it is the policy of the PSNI to close the request. You will however be notified of this decision and given an opportunity to refine and resubmit the request.

If your request requires either full or partial transference to another public authority in order to answer your query, again, you will be notified.
If you have any queries regarding your request please write or contact the Freedom of Information Team on 028 9070 0164. Please remember to quote the reference number listed above in any future communications with the Freedom of Information Team.

If you are dissatisfied in any way with the handling of your request, you have the right to request a review.You should do this as soon as possible, or in any case within two months of the date of issue of this letter.In the event that you require a review to be undertaken, you can do so by writing to the Head of Freedom of Information, PSNI Headquarters, 65 Knock Road, Belfast, BT5 6LE or by emailing [email address].

If following an internal review, carried out by an independent decision maker, you were to remain dissatisfied in any way with the handling of the request you may make a complaint,under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act, to the Information Commissioner's Office and ask that they investigate whether the PSNI has complied with the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. You can write to the Information Commissioner at Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. In most circumstances the Information Commissioner will not investigate a complaint unless an internal review procedure has been carried out, however the Commissioner has the option to investigate the matter at his discretion.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Gordon Reid
A/Head of Freedom of Information

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Dear Mr Reid,

Can you please provide an update on the status of this request,
which is now overdue.

Thank you,

Richard

Mr Jackson

This is with Line Management for comments prior to release

I apologies for the delay in responding to your request.

FOI Team

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Subject: F-2008-03909

September 11, 2008

Dear Mr. Jackson,

FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000

I would firstly like to apologise for the delay in responding to your
request.

I write in connection with your request for information dated July 31,
2008 which was received by the Police Service of Northern Ireland on July
31, 2008 concerning:

Status of requests for search warrants and the subsequent issuance or
rejection thereof

This is to inform you that the Police Service of Northern Ireland has now
completed its search for the information you requested. The decision has
been taken to disclose the located information to you in full.

Request. I am trying to find information relating to the status of
requests for search warrants and the subsequent issuance or rejection
thereof.

Are the requests and/or the warrants themselves public records? Is it
possible to see individual requests/warrants or lists of warrants sought,
granted and/or rejected?

If these records are open to the public, can you please provide
information how they may be accessed, in particular what information is
required to view details relating to a specific warrant.

Also, can you tell me what aggregate information is kept or available:
e.g. is information produced/published on the number of requests made /
accepted / rejected per month (or some other period), and is this, or can
this be, broken down by court location and/or magistrate/judge and/or
requesting party? Presumably if all these records are kept in a computer
database it would be possible to get any such report, but I'm unsure what
information is stored and in what format, and whether any statistics are
regularly published or would need to be requested individually.

Response.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland are interpreting this request as
asking about the procedure for accessing information about warrants
requested/issued/rejected rather than actually asking to see the warrants
themselves.

Warrants are not Public documents in the sense that they are routinely
published but information held by a public authority, such as information
about warrants maybe requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
However it should be noted when requesting such information under FOIA,
the information will always be assessed for harm prior to disclosure,
information relating to warrants is likely to be considered sensitive
material and therefore subject to exemptions.

Under section 16 we have a duty to provide advise and assistance, for your
information, No Statistics with regard to search warrants are published
regularly and any information regarding warrants e.g. the number of
requests made / accepted / rejected per month (or some other period), is
not held centrally within the PSNI. Any retrieval of this information and
presentation of same in an understandable format would prove to be labour
intensive because we would have to contact each District Command Unit
(DCU) to obtain any information which is available. This would mean a
manual search/retrieval of records being carried out by each DCU, which
may result in the request exceeding the 'appropriate limit' as stated in
the Freedom of Information Regulations 2004, which is currently set by the
Secretary of State at £450.

If you have any queries regarding your request or the decision please do
not hesitate to contact me on 028 9070 0164. When contacting the Freedom
of Information Team, please quote the reference number listed at the
beginning of this email.

If you are dissatisfied in any way with the handling of your request, you
have the right to request a review.You should do this as soon as possible,
or in any case within two months of the date of issue of this letter.In
the event that you require a review to be undertaken, you can do so by
writing to the Head of Freedom of Information, PSNI Headquarters, 65 Knock
Road, Belfast, BT5 6LE or by emailing [email address].

If following an internal review, carried out by an independent decision
maker, you were to remain dissatisfied in any way with the handling of the
request you may make a complaint,under Section 50 of the Freedom of
Information Act, to the Information Commissioner's Office and ask that
they investigate whether the PSNI has complied with the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act. You can write to the Information Commissioner
at Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. In most circumstances the Information
Commissioner will not investigate a complaint unless an internal review
procedure has been carried out, however the Commissioner has the option to
investigate the matter at his discretion.

Please be advised that all PSNI replies under Freedom of Information will
be released simultaneously into the public domain via our website @
[1]www.psni.police.uk.

Personal details in respect of your request have, where applicable, been
removed to protect confidentiality.

Yours sincerely

Mr Gordon Reid

A/Head of Freedom of Information

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References

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1. file:///tmp/outbind:/8/www.psni.police.uk