Detentions under mental health act by ethnicity

The request was refused by West Midlands Police.

Dear West Midlands Police,

I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for data on people detained by the force under the Mental Health Act.

For the 2019-20 and the 2020-21 financial years, please tell me:

1) The number of people detained under the Mental Health Act, broken down by officer-perceived ethnicity

2) The type of vehicle officers used to transport those detained to a place of safety, broken down by officer-perceived ethnicity. Please split these by ambulance, police vehicle, other health vehicle, other, not known, or none (already at a place of safety).

3) The place of safety used for those detained, broken down by officer-perceived ethnicity. Please split these by police station, A&E, private home, health based place of safety, other, and not known.

4) For those people transported using a police vehicle, please specify whether an ambulance was requested, broken down by officer perceived ethnicity.

5) For those people detained and taken to a police station, please specify the reason for the police station being used, broken down by officer perceived ethnicity. For instance in England, officers may take a person to a police station as a place of safety if they are over 18 and their behaviour poses an imminent risk of serious injury or death to that person or others (abbreviated in Home Office data as 'conditions in Regulations were met').

6) For those people detained and taken to a police station, please provide a breakdown of their officer perceived ethnicity and the duration in hours of their stay in the police station.

7) For those people detained and taken to a police station, please provide a count of those who were arrested for committing an offence, broken down by officer perceived ethnicity.

For all ethnicity breakdowns, please use Home Office/ONS categorisations. These consist of 'White', 'Black', 'Asian', 'Mixed', and 'Other'. Please include Chinese persons in the category of Other.

Yours faithfully,

Harriet Clugston

(Please note I am using a WhatDoTheyKnowAccount set up by my colleague Claire Wilde but my name is Harriet Clugston)

Freedom of Information,

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Freedom of Information,

4 Attachments

Dear Harriet Clugston

 

FOI Request Reference: 996A/21

 

Thank you for your request for information, received 30/06/21

 

REQUEST

 

For the 2019-20 and the 2020-21 financial years, please tell me:

 

1) The number of people detained under the Mental Health Act, broken down
by officer-perceived ethnicity

 

2) The type of vehicle officers used to transport those detained to a
place of safety, broken down by officer-perceived ethnicity. Please split
these by ambulance, police vehicle, other health vehicle, other, not
known, or none (already at a place of safety).

 

3) The place of safety used for those detained, broken down by
officer-perceived ethnicity. Please split these by police station, A&E,
private home, health based place of safety, other, and not known.

 

4) For those people transported using a police vehicle, please specify
whether an ambulance was requested, broken down by officer perceived
ethnicity.

 

5) For those people detained and taken to a police station, please specify
the reason for the police station being used, broken down by officer
perceived ethnicity. For instance in England, officers may take a person
to a police station as a place of safety if they are over 18 and their
behaviour poses an imminent risk of serious injury or death to that person
or others (abbreviated in Home Office data as 'conditions in Regulations
were met').

 

6) For those people  detained and taken to a police station, please
provide a breakdown of their officer perceived ethnicity and the duration
in hours of their stay in the police station.

 

7) For those people detained and taken to a police station, please provide
a count of those who were arrested for committing an offence, broken down
by officer perceived ethnicity.

 

For all ethnicity breakdowns, please use Home Office/ONS categorisations.
These consist of 'White', 'Black', 'Asian', 'Mixed', and 'Other'. Please
include Chinese persons in the category of other.

 

RESPONSE

 

Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this
information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).This information
is not centrally held in a retrievable format ,each detention  log /
record would need to located and retrieved to see if any of the
information is mentioned within the summary detail of the log.

 

The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount
to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and
retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under
section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the
appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004, S.I. 3244.

 

Therefore the cost of providing you with the information is above the
amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of
locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as
stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit)
Regulations 2004.

 

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts
as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and if one part of a
request exceeds the fees limit then S12 of the Act applies to the whole
request

 

I am unable to suggest any practical way in which your request may be
modified in order to satisfy your query or bring it within the 18 hours
stipulated by the Regulations. I can advise that even if you were to
refine the request and request a break of all the categories mentioned by
ethnicity, that this information would still exceed the cost limit under
FOI.

 

However to assist where possible the most recent relevant information that
you may find useful is available via

 

[1]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...

 

Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here:

 

[2]https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-co...

 

 As recommended as good practice by the Information Commissioner’s Office
a version of this response may be published on the West Midlands Police
website.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

 

For further information and data on West Midlands Police see our
publication scheme and disclosure log

 

[3]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

 

RIGHT OF APPEAL

 

Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your
case under West Midlands Police review procedure, which can be found at:

 

[4]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/revie...

 

Please note that such an appeal must be received within 40 working days of
the date of this correspondence. Any such request received after this time
will only be considered at the discretion of the FOI Unit.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Michelle Richardson | Freedom of Information
Corporate Communications | West Midlands Police

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This email is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged
or confidential information. If received in error, please notify the
originator immediately. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or
alteration of this email is strictly forbidden. Views or opinions
expressed in this email do not necessarily represent those of West
Midlands Police. All West Midlands Police email activity is monitored for
virus, racist, obscene, or otherwise inappropriate activity. No
responsibility is accepted by West Midlands Police for any loss or damage
arising in any way from the receipt or use of this email.

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