Costings

The request was refused by Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

Dear Avon and Somerset Constabulary,

1,Please provide me with detailed costings of Freedom of information requests from 1st February 2014 to the 30th of January 2015.

2. These costings are to include salaries to staff engaged in research for FOIA requests.

3. Any overtime incurred by staff employed to the FOIA department.

4.Could you also provide numbers of outstanding requests.

5. Numbers of requests deemed vexatious.

6. Numbers of requests refused and for what reason.

7. Costings for any additional staff seconded to the FIOA department to assist with the requests.

Yours faithfully,

Steven Mount

#Freedom of Information Requests, Avon and Somerset Constabulary

 

 

 

Corporate Information Management Department

Force Headquarters, PO Box 37, Valley Road,

Portishead, Bristol, BS20 8QJ

Facsimile 01275 814667

    

Private Our Reference 148/15

Mr Steven Mount
Date 02 February
[1][FOI #251499 email] 2015

 

 

Dear Mr Mount

 

I write in connection with your request for information dated 30^th
January 2015 concerning freedom of information requests. This request will
be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Your request will now be considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act. In some
circumstances Avon and Somerset Constabulary may be unable to achieve this
deadline if consideration needs to be given to the public interest test.
If this is likely you will be informed and given a revised time-scale at
the earliest opportunity.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

C Quartey

 

Freedom of Information Officer

Corporate Information Management Department

 

Please note;

1.     Requests and responses may be published on Avon and Somerset
Constabulary’s website (within 24 hours), some of which may contain a link
to additional information, which may provide you with further
clarification.

2.     Whilst we may verbally discuss your request with you in order to
seek clarification, all other communication should be made in writing.

3.     Avon and Somerset Constabulary provides you with the right to
request a re-examination of your case under its review procedure.

 

 

 

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#Freedom of Information Requests, Avon and Somerset Constabulary

 

 

 

 

 

Corporate Information Management Department

Force Headquarters, PO Box 37, Valley Road,

Portishead, Bristol, BS20 8QJ

Facsimile 01275 814667

    

Private Our Reference 148/15

Mr Steven Mount

[1][FOI #251499 email] Date 4^th February
2015
 

 

 

Dear Mr Mount

 

Thank you for your request which I have copied below. In order for us to
provide you with the information you require some clarification is
necessary.

 

1,Please provide me with detailed costings of  Freedom of information
requests from 1st February 2014 to the 30th of January 2015.

 

2. These costings are to include salaries to staff engaged in research for
FOIA requests.

 

3. Any overtime incurred by staff employed to the FOIA department.

 

4.Could you also provide numbers of outstanding requests.

 

5. Numbers of requests deemed vexatious.

 

6. Numbers of requests refused and for what reason.

 

7. Costings for any additional staff seconded to the FIOA department to
assist with the requests.

 

With regard to your questions 4-7 can you please confirm you would like
the information for the same timeframe 1^st February 2014 to the 30^th
January 2015.

 

I will be unable to start to process your request until I have received
your clarification. If your clarification is not received within 20
working days this request will be closed.

Yours sincerely,

 

C Quartey

 

Freedom of Information Officer

Corporate Information Management Department

 

Please note;

1.     Requests and responses may be published on Avon and Somerset
Constabulary’s website (within 24 hours), some of which may contain a link
to additional information, which may provide you with further
clarification.

2.     Whilst we may verbally discuss your request with you in order to
seek clarification, all other communication should be made in writing.

3.     Avon and Somerset Constabulary provides you with the right to
request a re-examination of your case under its review procedure.

 

 

 

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Dear #Freedom of Information Requests,

As suggested by yourself please use the same dates as provide for the other requests

Yours sincerely,

Steven Mount

#Freedom of Information Requests, Avon and Somerset Constabulary

1 Attachment

Corporate Information Management Department

Force Headquarters, PO Box 37, Valley Road,

Portishead, Bristol, BS20 8QJ

Facsimile 01275 814667

Email foirequests@avonandsomerset.police.uk   

 

 

Private Our Reference 148/15 464/15
465/15
Steven Mount Your reference  
Date 25 February
<[FOI #251499 email]> 2015

 

Dear Mr Mount

 

I write in connection with your request for information concerning injury
on duty pensions.

 

Your request(s) for information have been considered and I am now
informing you that for the following reasons the Constabulary is not
obliged to supply the information you have requested and will therefore
not be providing the information requested on this occasion.

 

The Constabulary is obliged under Section 17(5) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, when refusing to provide the information requested
to provide you with written confirmation (referred to as a “Notice” under
the Act) to explain that the request(s) have been refused and which
exemptions have been applied and why. This letter constitutes that
“Notice” and will in due course explain the reasons for refusal on this
occasion.  

 

The Constabulary will not be providing the information requested, as your
request(s) is deemed vexatious by virtue of Section 14(1). Section 14(1)
of the Freedom of Information Act states: Section 1(1) does not oblige a
public authority to comply with a request for information if the request
is vexatious. The term ‘vexatious’ is not defined in the Act, but guidance
from the Information Commissioner outlines this as requests which cause an
undue burden and can be viewed as either obsessive, harassing to the
public authority or its staff, designed to cause disruption or annoyance
or is lacking any serious purpose or value.

 

For your information, the Information Commissioner has published guidance
with examples, concerning vexatious requests and I would suggest the below
as a useful reference should you wish to read more on this subject

[1]www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/freedom_of_information/detailed_specialist_guides/awareness_guidance_22_vexatious_and_repeated_requests_final.pdf

 

It is important in such matters to consider the wider picture.  Deciding
whether a request is vexatious is a balancing exercise, taking into
account the context and history of the requests. The key question is
whether the request is likely to cause distress, or disruption, without
any proper or justified cause. 

 

Avon and Somerset Constabulary as you know, has commenced reviewing injury
on duty pensions.  These reviews have caused a great deal of concern
amongst those former officers currently receiving an injury on duty
pension, as this has the potential to affect their income.  Initially 16
former officers are due to be reviewed and after that it will be a rolling
programme of reviews. 

 

These reviews have generated a great deal of interest from numerous
individuals.  Nearly all of these, like yours, have been generated via the
Whatdotheyknow website. The Constabulary has formed the opinion that the
flood of emails is a deliberate and orchestrated campaign against the
Force. Your request is one of 118 requests currently being processed by
the Constabulary. In total the Constabulary has received 189 such
requests, totalling 492 questions.

 

To date the Constabulary has been responding to requests of this nature. 
However it is apparent each response is generating further questions, the
requests are all similar in nature, with some lacking any serious purpose
or value other than to overwhelm or harass the Constabulary.  In addition
to this a small number of other questions have also been posed by the same
individuals concerning seemingly un-associated subjects such as the
Freedom of Information process.  These are also considered to form part of
a campaign against the Force to cause disruption as the individuals
history only extends otherwise to IOD related questions in the recent
months.

 

We are experiencing significantly high volumes of requests at this time,
and even so these requests alone make up 49% of our current volume. This
has put a significant burden on the Constabulary. As you know there is a
legislative requirement to respond to requests within 20 working days. In
order to respond to these requests would adversely affect our ability to
meet the legal requirements for the other requests we are currently
dealing with.

 

The application of this exemption, under the terms of the Act is designed
to protect forces from requestors that abuse freedom of information in an
attempt to disrupt or impact on the delivery of public functions.  It is
the Constabulary’s opinion that the volume and frequency of these requests
show a clear intention to deliberately disrupt the Constabulary, imposing
a significant burden. These requests have become obsessive in nature.  Any
reasonable person would regard the volume and frequency of these requests
as harassing the authority, irrespective of whether that was personally
your intention.

 

There is a public interest in the public being assured that the force is
spending its funding wisely.  The Constabulary and the Police Crime
Commissioner each have a Chief Financial Officer who has a statutory role
under section 151 of the local government act 1972 Act that requires them
to have a fiduciary duty to local taxpayers to ensure that monies are used
efficiently and effectively.

 

The application of this exemption will not disadvantage those going
through the review process as they are able to direct any questions they
may have to the appropriate individuals. In addition there is information
already in the public domain concerning these reviews.

 

The most common theme of the Injury on Duty pensions requests received by
the Force are associated with the members of staff and independent Doctor
involved in the review process, for example requesting all email, written,
correspondence, diary appointments, qualifications of those individuals,
and in most cases, once the information is provided, numerous questions
about those disclosures are received from the same group of individuals,
similar or identical in wording. This information serves no public
interest, and is viewed that its only purpose is to disrupt the
Constabulary adversely affecting our ability to deliver public functions.
Our figures show a steady increase of these requests, and as the reviews
continue, there does not appear to be an end point. Although the Avon and
Somerset Constabulary is a relatively large organisation the size of the
organisation is not a reliable indicator of capacity in relation to
Freedom of Information. The requests are about a single topic which is
dealt with by a relatively small part of the organisation ie Human
Resources and Occupational Health. It is not a practical resolution for
these areas to be resourced to assist with the requests. In addition
occupational health files are confidential and only accessible by staff
from the unit - staff not connected with the unit cannot be given access
to them due to patient confidentiality. In some cases these are the files
that need or be accesses to provide the FOI responses.  Capacity is
therefore limited and cannot be expanded.

The ability of both HR and Occupational Health to perform their business
tasks has been undermined to the extent that service delivery has been
adversely affected.

 

As described above these requests have caused a disproportionate and
unjustified level of disruption, in that we will no longer be able to
respond to our other freedom of information requests within the
legislative timeframe. In addition the services provided by our Human
Resources department, Occupational Health, and Force Medical Advisor had
been inhibited as a result.  This most certainly is not in the public
interest. 

 

As we believe that the vexatious criteria are met in this case, we will
not be responding to this or any further similar requests.  As per section
17(6) further refusal notices will not be issued.  

 

Yours sincerely

 

C Quartey

 

Freedom of Information Officer

Corporate Information Management Department

 

 

Please note:

1.     Requests and responses may be published on Avon and Somerset
Constabulary’s website (within 24 hours), some of which may contain a link
to additional information, which may provide you with further
clarification.

2.     Whilst we may verbally discuss your request with you in order to
seek clarification, all other communication should be made in writing.

3.     Avon and Somerset Constabulary provides you with the right to
request a re-examination of your case under its review procedure (copy
attached).

 

 

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Dear #Freedom of Information Requests,
Please provide all the evidence of the suggestion that I am amongst others that have requested information on IOD pensions.
I feel that it is not sufficient to assume that I am part of a group.
I have sent three requests for information to the force and I am not aware of any other requests.
The requests that I have sent are reasonable and not complicated. It would appear from your stance that the force have something to hide from me?
Please review your policy and reply to my requests as I feel that the forces assumption is wrong and overbearing on me.
I will of course be making a formal complaint to the body that governs FOI requests.
I reiterate that you need to provide evidence of a group action against the force it is not good enough to assume. you are a police force and have years of dealing with evidence so please provide it.
You must agree that with nearly 500 IOD's the amount of requests that you will receive will be considerably high.

Yours sincerely,

Steven Mount

Tom Hodder left an annotation ()

Steven,

I'm not saying they are right, but I assume it's based on the context of your other requests and the timing. I'm guessing tho...

Not sure I've ever seen an authority take this stance before...

Jeff Hines, Avon and Somerset Constabulary

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Mount

Please find attached a response to your application for an internal review
in relation to your recent FOI request.

Jeff Hines
Information Access Manager
Corporate Information Management Department
Avon and Somerset Constabulary
PO Box 37
Valley Road
Bristol
BS20 8QJ
<<Letter Mr Mount.doc>>

 

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