Which regulation prevents you from investigating a complaint that the police have ignored?

The request was refused by West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

Dear West Yorkshire Combined Authority,

You tell me today that the law prohibits you from investigating a complaint to the police which the police have themselves ignored.
The fundamental problem with this situation ought not need spelling out, but it means that the police can avoid scrutiny simply by ignoring any inconvenient complaints.
This cannot be right, but before we can campaign for a change in the law, we must first find out what the law actually is.

Accordingly, what is the regulation upon which you rely in regards to your refusal to investigate this complaint?

Yours faithfully,

Keith Kennaugh

policingandcrime, West Yorkshire Combined Authority

1 Attachment

Our Reference: FOI-PC-21-22

 

6 April 2022

 

Dear Mr Kennaugh,

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: PC-21-22

 

I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority on 9 March 2022. Your request has
been handled by the Policing & Crime Function. You requested the following
information:

 

You tell me today that the law prohibits you from investigating a
complaint to the police which the police have themselves ignored.

The fundamental problem with this situation ought not need spelling out,
but it means that the police can avoid scrutiny simply by ignoring any
inconvenient complaints.

This cannot be right, but before we can campaign for a change in the law,
we must first find out what the law actually is.

 

Accordingly, what is the regulation upon which you rely in regards to your
refusal to investigate this complaint?

 

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (henceforth the Combined Authority)
considers this request to be vexatious under section 14(2) of the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA).

 

The Combined Authority has noted the number of requests that you have
submitted under the FOIA – albeit from alternative email addresses yet all
of the same or similar nature. Several attempts have been made to advise,
under Section 16 of the FOIA, alternative methods to communicate with the
Combined Authority yet the pursuit of submitting such questions under the
FOIA is both disproportionate and not in the public interest.

 

In line with the ICO’s advice, the Combined Authority sees the following
indicators in your requests and the reason for such:

 

• The effort and burden on the Combined Authority to respond to these
requests and to meet these requests moving forwards is so grossly
oppressive in terms of the strain on time and resources, that the Combined
Authority cannot reasonably be expected to comply, no matter how
legitimate the subject matter or valid the intentions.

 

• You are attempting to reopen an issue which, has already been
comprehensively addressed by the Combined Authority and has been provided
to you in full already or otherwise subjected to some form of independent
scrutiny

 

• You are taking an unreasonably entrenched position, rejecting attempts
to assist and advise out of hand and shows no willingness to follow the
advice given under alternative FOI’s.

 

• You are abusing their rights of access to information by using the
legislation as a means to vent your anger at a particular decision, or to
harass and annoy the Combined Authority, for example, by requesting
information which the Combined Authority knows you to possess already

 

Please take this response as a refusal notice and should you consider that
this has not been handled properly, you can ask for an internal review of
our decision. I have attached a copy of our appeals policy which explains
how to submit an appeal and who will consider it. You can also complain to
the Information Commissioner’s Office via their website, ico.org.uk,
although please note they would usually expect you to have gone through
our internal review procedure before contacting them.

 

Moving forwards, we are not obliged to respond to requests under section
17(6) of the FOIA where we believe them to be vexatious under section
14(1) FOIA and we have previously replied to similar requests with an
explanation of the reasons for our refusal, or provided more suitable
advice to request the information which you are after e.g. via Casework.
Should the organisation receive requests from you in these themes, tone or
context to previous requests, we will no longer issue refusal notices as
per Section 17(6) of the FOIA.

 

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority reiterates the information that has
been provided under previous requests: The Combined Authority is obliged
to confirm whether it holds the information that you have asked for and,
if so, and subject to any lawful exemptions, to provide it to you. The
Freedom of Information Act only applies to information that is held in a
reportable format and we are not obliged to create information to answer
your request. If you wish to make an enquiry or an expression of
dissatisfaction that can cover a whole range of things from policies to
behaviour you can contact our Casework Team by email:
[1][email address].

 

I hope this clarifies matters. In future, if you make a request to us and
do not receive a response, please assume that we are relying on section
17(6) and that we do not intend to respond.

 

If you consider that your request for information has not been handled
properly, you can ask for an internal review of our decision. I have
attached a copy of our appeals policy which explains how to submit an
appeal and who will consider it. You can also complain to the Information
Commissioner’s Office via their website
[2]https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/offi...
or by telephone on 0303 123 1113, although please note they would usually
expect you to have gone through our internal review procedure before
contacting them.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Policing & Crime Team

West Yorkshire Combined Authority | Leeds City Region Enterprise
Partnership (the LEP)

Ploughland House | 62 George Street | Wakefield | WF1 1DL

[3]www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk | [4]www.the-lep.com

 

Follow the West Yorkshire Combined Authority on [5]Twitter | Follow the
LEP on [6]Twitter or on [7]LinkedIn

Metro is the transport network of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Find local travel information at [8]www.wymetro.com, [9]Twitter and
[10]Facebook

 

 

 

[11]MJ Awards
 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/offi...
3. http://www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/
4. http://www.the-lep.com/
5. https://twitter.com/@WestYorkshireCA
6. https://twitter.com/LeedsCityRegion
7. https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelep/
8. http://www.wymetro.com/
9. https://twitter.com/metrotravelnews
10. https://www.facebook.com/westyorkshireme...

Dear West Yorkshire Combined Authority,

I appreciate that your policing and crime department's deep devotion to their prime minister means that they dare not risk any investigation into any criminal misconduct by any of his cabinet, because he is quite clearly as guilty as sin, but that does not entitle them to ignore the rules and neglect their duties.

They claim that this request is vexatious on the grounds that I am "Attempting to reopen an issue which, has already been comprehensively addressed."
This refers to a complaint about the misconduct of ministers closely related to the current "Partygate" scandal, but with a more direct contribution to the deaths of over 170,000 people and the pending break up and sale of the NHS.

West Yorkshire Police have deemed this a victimless crime and on that basis refuse to record it because "The elements to prove have not been met."
They do not explain why they think it a victimless crime and refuse to clarify what "Elements" remain unproven.
This they say is "Comprehensively addressed".

The reason that they describe it as "Vexatious" appears to be because they seek to avoid scrutiny, and it is the effort of avoiding scrutiny that they find oppressive.
Any reasonable office that thought they had done an adequate job would welcome the scrutiny rather than suffer the oppression, so we might reasonably presume that the office knows they have done a shoddy job.

Moving on, I might accept a refusal on the grounds that the question has already been answered, given that their head of department last year told me that their only knowledge of police policies and procedures comes from the police, but that would give rise to a question of how can you effectively scrutinise a body when your only knowledge of what you are scrutinising comes from the scrutinee.

Will you answer that one now, or should I put it in as a separate request?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...

Yours faithfully,

Keith Kennaugh

policingandcrime, West Yorkshire Combined Authority

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Kennaugh,

Please see attached the response to your Freedom of Information request’s
internal review.

 

Kind regards,

 

Policing & Crime Team

West Yorkshire Combined Authority | Leeds City Region Enterprise
Partnership (the LEP)

Ploughland House | 62 George Street | Wakefield | WF1 1DL

[1]www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk | [2]www.the-lep.com

 

Follow the West Yorkshire Combined Authority on [3]Twitter | Follow the
LEP on [4]Twitter or on [5]LinkedIn

Metro is the transport network of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Find local travel information at [6]www.wymetro.com, [7]Twitter and
[8]Facebook

 

[9]MJ Awards
 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/
2. http://www.the-lep.com/
3. https://twitter.com/@WestYorkshireCA
4. https://twitter.com/LeedsCityRegion
5. https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelep/
6. http://www.wymetro.com/
7. https://twitter.com/metrotravelnews
8. https://www.facebook.com/westyorkshireme...