Section 12, Police Reform Act

This request has been withdrawn by the person who made it. There may be an explanation in the correspondence below.

Dear North Yorkshire Police,

The Police Reform Act 2002, places restrictions on who can make formal a complaint about police conduct, in some cases it prevents serving officers and staff from making formal complaints. Where a serving member of staff wishes to make a complaint, often the only option open to them is to pursue any issue internally, a process which ultimately is under the discretion and control of the Chief Constable.

" The PRA defines who might be considered to be adversely affected by the conduct or who may have witnessed the conduct. Pursuant to section 12(3), a person may only fall into the “adversely affected” category if;

(a) They were physically present, or sufficiently nearby when the conduct took place or the effects occurred that they were able to see or hear the conduct or its affects, or

(b) The adverse effect was attributed to, or was aggravated by the fact that the person in relation to whom the conduct took place was already known to them.

"Pursuant to section 12(5) of the PRA, a person can be taken to have witnessed the conduct only if:
(a) they acquired knowledge of the conduct in a manner which would make them a competent witness capable of giving admissible evidence of that conduct in criminal proceedings; or
(b) that they have in their possession or control, anything which would in any such proceedings constitute admissible evidence of the alleged conduct.

The legislation also prevents former officers in certain circumstances from pursuing a complaint as a member of the public if the conduct subject to the complaint took place at a time when they were serving under the direction and control of the same Chief Officer or were a serving police officer at the time of the alleged conduct or at the time when the adverse effects took place or was witnessed (Section 29(4) of PRA).

In some cases 'Whistle-blowers' have been silenced by the application of Section 12, leaving serious matters unchallenged. I have personal experience of being blocked from referring serious allegations of potentially criminal conduct by senior police officers, due to the application of Section 12.

In order to ascertain whether my experience is limited to a single police force or whether the problem is more widespread, I would like to request the following information.

1. The number of complaints made to your Professional Standards Unit, but not formally recorded or proceeded with under the formal complaints procedures, due to the application of Section 12, PRA during the period March 2016 - March 2019.

2. The number of complaints if any, which although could have been excluded under Section 12, were nevertheless were treated as formal complaints and dealt with under the formal complaints procedures, during the period March 2016 - March 2019.

Should you require any clarification please let me know.

Yours faithfully,

Mr L. Anderson

Civil Disclosure, North Yorkshire Police

Thank you for your email, please treat this as an acknowledgement of receipt.

We are currently experiencing a very high volume of requests for information. We will endeavour to provide a response to your request as soon as we can.

Your email will be dealt with accordingly.

PLEASE NOTE: If your query is to address an urgent safeguarding concern then please redirect your enquiry to the Vulnerability Assessment Team email: [email address]<mailto:[email address]>
The Vulnerability Assessment Team is available during office hours Monday to Friday.

Civil Disclosure Unit

Web: www.northyorkshire.police.uk<http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/>

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Wayne Leigthon left an annotation ()

Dear Mr Anderson,

NYP have a terrible the record for answering FOI's.

This document will assist you in your search for information. More years are available on the Police Conduct web site

https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/sites/d...

Dear North Yorkshire Police,

Due to some ambiguities within he request I have made I would like to withdraw this request, my apologies for any inconvenience.

Yours faithfully,

Mr L. Anderson

Civil Disclosure, North Yorkshire Police

Thank you for your email, please treat this as an acknowledgement of receipt.

We are currently experiencing a very high volume of requests for information. We will endeavour to provide a response to your request as soon as we can.

Your email will be dealt with accordingly.

PLEASE NOTE: If your query is to address an urgent safeguarding concern then please redirect your enquiry to the Vulnerability Assessment Team email: [email address]<mailto:[email address]>
The Vulnerability Assessment Team is available during office hours Monday to Friday.

Civil Disclosure Unit

Web: www.northyorkshire.police.uk<http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/>

show quoted sections