Restricted duties

The request was partially successful.

Dear Northumbria Police,
I would be obliged if you could tell me
1. How many Police Officers are currently on restricted duties
2. How many Police Officers are on long term sick leave
3. How many Police officers are currently employed by the Force

Yours faithfully,

Bob Watson

Northumbria Police

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

Thank you for your email received today in which you make a request for
information that Northumbria Police may hold.

We are in the process of dealing with your request and a response should be
provided to you by 31/01/14.

Yours sincerely

Jan Mcewan

Disclosure Section

NORTHUMBRIA POLICE PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

The information contained in this message and any attachment(s) is confidential and intended only for the attention of the named organisation or individual to whom it is addressed. The message may contain information that is covered by legal, professional or other privilege. No mistake in transmission is intended to waive or compromise any such privilege. This message has been sent over public networks and the sender cannot be held responsible for its integrity.

If you are not the intended recipient be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken in reliance of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited, and is contrary to the provisions of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988 and of the Data Protection Act, 1998.

Any views expressed are those of the sender and, unless specifically stated, do not necessarily represent the view of Northumbria Police.

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For more information about Northumbria Police please visit our website - http://www.northumbria.police.uk

Northumbria Police

1 Attachment

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

Thank you for your e mail dated 3 January 2014 in which you made a request
for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of
access to information held by a Public Authority (including the Police),
subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

1. How many Police Officers are currently on restricted duties
2. How many Police Officers are on long term sick leave
3. How many Police officers are currently employed by the Force

In response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I
provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the HR
Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you
have requested is held by Northumbria Police.
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you as follows.

Under the Equality Act 2010, applicable to both police staff and officers,
reasonable adjustments must be considered and made where practicable, to
allow people covered by the act to undertake their roles. Reasonable
adjustments may include offering restricted/recuperative duties, retention
in a suitable post (police officers) or redeployment into a suitable post
(police staff). Each case is assessed on an individual basis, restrictions
to duty can take many forms and in some cases can result in very minimal
adjustments, all advice is provided by Human Resource Advisor and
Occupational Health specialists.

1. On the 13th January 2014 there were 115 police officers on restricted
duties. Officers are posted to substantive police officer roles in which
they perform the full duties of the role.

2. On the 13th January 2014 there were 54 police officers on long term sick
leave.

3. As the information you have requested at this point is accessible by
other means I have not provided you with a copy of the information and will
rely on Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You should
therefore consider this a refusal for your request.

I have provided an explanation to this exemption below.

Section 21 (1) - Information accessible by other means

Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant is exempt
information.

This information is freely available on the 'about us' page on the
Northumbria Police website.
To assist I have provided the link below.

http://www.northumbria.police.uk/about_us/

You may be interested to know that our Occupational Health Unit comprises a
multi disciplinary team of health professionals who provide advice,
guidance and support to officers and staff throughout the force to support
the health and well-being agenda.
The service includes access to a specialist in-house counselling service.
In addition, information regarding support agencies available within the
Force, such as the Disability Support Association or the Force Chaplaincy
can be passed to individuals when appropriate.

Referral for psychological support can be made as soon as an issue or
concern comes to the attention of supervision, or where an officer or
member of staff becomes absent due to a psychological issue or disorder.
Alternatively, individuals can refer themselves for support from the OH
counsellors. Early referrals to the team ensure that any sickness absence
is kept to minimum and wherever possible and appropriate, adjustments and
restrictions can be discussed with the Force Medical Advisor and
supervision in order to ensure that an individual is assisted to remain at
work, or return to work as soon as it is safe and practicable for them to
do so.
An out of hours post trauma advice service is provided by the Occupation
Health Counsellors (OHC). This ensures that immediate post trauma support,
advice and guidance are available following any major incident that an
officer may have been involved in.
The occupational health team assist in the delivery of stress awareness
training to the Force. The OHC and Health and Safety team provide this
training to assist managers, staff and officers with any concerns or issues
they may be encountering within their individual workplaces. It also
assists in ensuring that managers and supervisors have the required
competence and confidence to handle any issues involving psychological
disorders appropriately and to refer onto appropriate support for the
individual in a timely and supportive manner.

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a
specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication
of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems
used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures
used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between
forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

You may be interested to know that Northumbria Police routinely publish
information via the Disclosure Log. The aim of the Disclosure Log is to
promote openness and transparency by voluntarily placing information into
the public arena.

The Disclosure Log contains copies of some of the information that has been
disclosed by Northumbria Police in response to requests made under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Whilst it is not possible to publish all responses we will endeavour to
publish those where we feel that the information disclosed is in the public
interest.

The Disclosure Log will be updated once responses have been sent to the
requester.

I have provided the relevant link below.

http://www.northumbria.police.uk/foi/dis...

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual
property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be
strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as
amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not
re-use this information for any commercial purpose.

How to complain

If you are unhappy with our decision or do not consider that we have
handled your request properly and we are unable to resolve this issue
informally, you are entitled to make a formal complaint to us under our
complaints procedure which is attached.

(See attached file: FOI Complaint Rights.doc)

If you are still unhappy after we have investigated your complaint and
reported to you the outcome, you may complain directly to the Information
Commissioner’s Office and request that they investigate to ascertain
whether we have dealt with your request in accordance with the Act.

Yours sincerely

Michael Cleugh
Data Protection and Disclosure Advisor
Direct Dial: 0191 2956941

[NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED]
NORTHUMBRIA POLICE PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

The information contained in this message and any attachment(s) is confidential and intended only for the attention of the named organisation or individual to whom it is addressed. The message may contain information that is covered by legal, professional or other privilege. No mistake in transmission is intended to waive or compromise any such privilege. This message has been sent over public networks and the sender cannot be held responsible for its integrity.

If you are not the intended recipient be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken in reliance of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited, and is contrary to the provisions of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988 and of the Data Protection Act, 1998.

Any views expressed are those of the sender and, unless specifically stated, do not necessarily represent the view of Northumbria Police.

We cannot accept any liability for any loss or damage sustained as a result of software viruses. It is your responsibility to carry out such virus checking as is necessary.

If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender by e-mail at once and delete the message immediately.

For more information about Northumbria Police please visit our website - http://www.northumbria.police.uk