Dear Mr Magher

RE: Freedom of Information 37_15

We have received your request and are currently working on the response. I have included the request number above should you wish to contact us regarding this request in the future.

We will endeavour to provide a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, as defined by the Act, subject to the application of any statutory exemptions. Where consideration is being given to the application of any exemptions the 20 working day timescale may be extended under the terms of the Act to a period considered reasonable depending on the nature and circumstances of your request. In such cases you will be notified and, where possible, a revised time-scale will be indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with your request at the earliest opportunity.

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of the information requested, where the request exceeds the statutory limit. In such cases you will be informed in writing and the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we receive payment from you or your request is modified and /or reduced. If you chose not to make full payment or modify your request then the request will remain unanswered.

Your request may require either full or partial transfer to another public authority. You will be informed if your request is transferred.

Yours sincerely

Courtney

Courtney Martin
Freedom of Information Unit
Corporate Communications

Tel: 101
ext: 7630 3507

To report crime and anti-social behaviour which does not require an emergency response please call 101. In an emergency call 999.

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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.

Good afternoon Mr Magher

Freedom of Information request 37_15

I would like to apologise for the length of time it is taking to provide a
response to your request. I am currently waiting for the data supplier to
provide a response and once this has been received, I will prioritise the
handling of your request.

Again, please accept my apologies. If you are dissatisifed with the way
West Midlands Police has handled your request, you are entitled to pursue
the matter with the Information Commissioners Office at [1]www.ico.gov.uk
or in writing to:

The Information Commissioners Office
Wycliff House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Kind regards
Courtney Martin
Freedom of Information Unit

Corporate Communications

Tel: 101

ext: 7630 3507

To report crime and anti-social behaviour which does not require an
emergency response please call 101. In an emergency call 999.

Website: [2]www.west-midlands.police.uk
Twitter: [3]www.twitter.com/wmpolice
Facebook: [4]www.facebook.com/westmidlandspolice
YouTube: [5]www.youtube.com/westmidlandspolice

Flickr: [6]www.flickr.com/westmidlandspolice

[7]View all our social network links

Our vision: Serving our communities, protecting them from harm

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.

References

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Please accept this as an acknowledgement of receipt of your e-mail by the
Freedom of Information Unit.
 
If your email is a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act, your request will be dealt with within the legislative
deadline of 20 working days.  Should we be unable to meet this deadline
for any reason you will be notified as soon as possible.
 
If your request does not relate to Freedom of Information, your e-mail
will be forwarded to the relevant department and you will be notified
where this has been passed to.
 
If you require further information please contact 101 and ask for the
Freedom of information Unit.
 
You might find what you are looking for on our website:
[1]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/
 
If you have information about any crime, you can contact us on the
non-emergency number: 101.
 
In an emergency, for example where life is in danger or a crime in
progress, call 999.

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.

References

Visible links
1. http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

Please accept this as an acknowledgement of receipt of your e-mail by the
Freedom of Information Unit.
 
If your email is a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act, your request will be dealt with within the legislative
deadline of 20 working days.  Should we be unable to meet this deadline
for any reason you will be notified as soon as possible.
 
If your request does not relate to Freedom of Information, your e-mail
will be forwarded to the relevant department and you will be notified
where this has been passed to.
 
If you require further information please contact 101 and ask for the
Freedom of information Unit.
 
You might find what you are looking for on our website:
[1]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/
 
If you have information about any crime, you can contact us on the
non-emergency number: 101.
 
In an emergency, for example where life is in danger or a crime in
progress, call 999.

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.

References

Visible links
1. http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

Dear Mr Magher

FOI Request Reference: 000037/15

Thank you for your request for information, received 06/01/2015. I
apologise for the length of time it has taken to provide this response. I
have attached a link to a CSE report that you mentioned in your previous
email:

http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/cse-p...

REQUEST

Given the recent public concern about child sexual exploitation
particularly the Rotherham situation and the issues raised in the Jay
Report. I would like to ask the following.

1.         a, Do WMP have a specialist unit looking at Child Sexual
Exploitation ?

If yes please state

b, is this a dedicated team ?

c, the size of the team?

d, What specialist training have they received ?

2.         a,Has WMP adopted any of the 15 Recommendations contained in
the Jay report that are pertinent to the organisation?

b, If yes, which recommendations were adopted ?

c,If no recommendations have been adopted, please give reasons ?

3.         Since the publication of the above Jay report how many
individuals have been questioned by police officers on matters relating to
Child Sexual Exploitation.

I would appreciate if this could be broken down into figures for
Birmingham and the 4 individual Black Country Boroughs.

4.         How many of these questioned were taxi drivers? Again I would
appreciate if this could be broken down into figures for Birmingham and
the 4 individual Black Country Boroughs.

5.         How many if any of those questioned have been:

a, given Police bail?

b, charged with any offence?

c, convicted of any offence?

6.         Has WMP undertaken any audit of any Local Authority in respect
of their Licensing Function in relation to the issue or renewal of private
hire and Hackney carriage taxi License/badges to ensure that all taxi
drivers are fit and proper persons to hold such a licence?

7.         If not does the police intend to carry out any audit as above?

8.         Has WMP undertaken any stop and check audits in any West
Midland local authority area on any taxi vehicles employed by Authorities
for any form of school pupil transportation ?

9.         If not does the police intend to carry out any audit as above?

10.       Has the WMP established links to schools or other establishments
with safeguarding procedures and approve persons under the Children Act
2004, Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 and Working Together to
Safeguard Children 2010 or any subsequent legislation?

11.       If not does the police intend to create links as above?

12.       a, Has the WMP an established ,"Whistle Blower " or an anonymous
reporting procedure for complaints of Child Sexual Exploitation?

b, If yes, are all anonymous Child Sexual Exploitation reports documented
and investigated ? Please state annual quantity since procedure approval.

c, if no anonymous Child Sexual Exploitation reports are recorded or
investigated by WMP, please give reasons?

RESPONSE

Please find the majority of information attached (37_Attachment).

The West Midlands Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds any
other information with regard to an exempt body as the duty in Section
1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply by virtue of
the following exemption:

Section 23(5) Information Supplied by, or concerning, certain Security
Bodies

Section 23 is a class based absolute exemption and there is no requirement
to consider the public interest in this case.

We are unable to provide a response to question 3, 4 and 5 within the cost
threshold set by the Freedom of Information Act (s.12 (1)). The
explanation regarding the reason why we are unable to do this has been
included within the attachment. Although excess cost removes the force’s
obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, because of the length of
time it has taken to provide this response, I have supplied information
relative to your request retrieved before it was realised that the fees
limit would be exceeded. Also some of this request asks us to answer
questions rather than requesting recorded information but to assist you,
we have provided information that you may find useful. I trust this is
helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees
regulations for the remainder of the request.

The cost of compliance with 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
of the Freedom of information 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.

A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is
relying on a claim that section 12 or section 14 applies must, within the
time for complying with Section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating
that fact. In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this
letter acts as a refusal notice.

To enable us to proceed with your request I would be grateful if you could
confirm whether you wish us to provide the information outlined above.
After receiving your reply, your request will be considered and you will
receive a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, as
defined by the Act, subject to the application of any statutory
exemptions. If you chose not to respond then your request will remain
unanswered.

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

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

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:

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

Please note that such an appeal must be received within six months of the
date of this correspondence.

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Kind regards,
Courtney Martin
Freedom of Information Unit

Corporate Communications

Tel: 101

ext: 7630 3507

To report crime and anti-social behaviour which does not require an
emergency response please call 101. In an emergency call 999.

Website: [3]www.west-midlands.police.uk
Twitter: [4]www.twitter.com/wmpolice
Facebook: [5]www.facebook.com/westmidlandspolice
YouTube: [6]www.youtube.com/westmidlandspolice

Flickr: [7]www.flickr.com/westmidlandspolice

[8]View all our social network links

Our vision: Serving our communities, protecting them from harm

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.

References

Visible links
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Dear Mr Magher

FOI Internal Review Reference: 000770/15

Thank you for your correspondence, received 09/03/2015 where you requested
West Midlands Police to review its response to your request (original
reference 0037_15) for information concerning Child Sexual Exploitation
(CSE)

REQUEST

I am writing to request an internal review of West Midlands Police's
handling of my FOI request 'Child Sexual Exploitation and The Jay Report'.

This request is now considerably overdue and I have received no
information in response to the matters requested.

RESPONSE

Please find below our response.

A review has been conducted and I have found the following:

A response was not provided to you within the 20 working day timescale. I
apologise for the continued delay. We experienced a delay in receiving a
response from our data supplier and although this was prioritised I
acknowledge that a response was not received within the 20 working day
timescale as set out by the Freedom of Information Act, This in turn
delayed my response to you for internal review also.

I have raised my concerns with the data suppliers, I am assured that
processes / plans are been introduced to ensure the we receive a more
timely response to our internal requests for information , this in turn
will assist the Freedom of Information team to help deliver a more timely
response in future .  

Your request asked for a large amount of data 12 main questions with sub
sections which amounted to 22 questions in total. The majority of the
information has now been provided to you, however to retrieve the data for
question 5 would exceed the cost threshold agreed by the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act. In these circumstances we would normally
liaise with the requester and advise them accordingly, however due to the
passage of time and to prevent further delay, we provided the information
we were able to retrieve before the cost threshold was reached.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Michelle Richardson 

Freedom of Information Unit

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.

Dear Mr Magher

FOI Request Reference: 001418/15

Thank you for your request for information, received 05/05/2015.

REQUEST

I have now waited since 6th Jan 2015, almost 4 months with a number of
reminders for this answer, sadly I simply cannot imagine how the WMP can
say it will cost over the statutory amount to give answers based on what
should be Policy recommendations to the WMP based on the Jay report.

Further to your response however I will reduce my request to asking about
"WMP Policy" which requires no statistical research or time collating data
and simply requires a yes or no answer

1, Has WMP adopted any of the 15 Recommendations contained in the Jay
report that are pertinent to the WMP organisation, Yes or No ?

If yes, which recommendations were adopted ?

If no recommendations have been adopted, please give reasons ?

2, Has WMP undertaken any audit of any Local Authority in respect of their
Licensing Function in relation to the issue or renewal of private hire and
Hackney carriage taxi License/badges to ensure that all taxi drivers are
fit and proper persons to hold such a licence, Yes or No ?

If not does the police intend to carry out any audit as above, Yes or No?

3, Has the WMP an established ,"Whistle Blower " or an anonymous reporting
procedure for complaints of Child Sexual Exploitation, Yes or No ?

If yes, are all anonymous Child Sexual Exploitation reports documented and
investigated , Yes or No ?

If no anonymous Child Sexual Exploitation reports are recorded or
investigated by WMP, please give reasons?

If these 3 questions are over the financial limit please notify me again

RESPONSE

Once one part of a request exceeds the cost threshold, the entire request
is considered over the appropriate limit. In this case, to establish the
number of individuals that have been questioned in regards to CSE would
exceed the cost threshold as set by the Act. Please consult the original
response for a full explanation.

The Freedom of Information Act relates to recorded information.
Unfortunately, some of the questions you asked did not relate to recorded
information and could not be provided under the Act.

Although excess cost removed the force’s obligations under the Freedom of
Information Act, in request 37/15 I supplied information as a gesture of
goodwill, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be
exceeded. I also provided you with a response given by an employee in the
Public Protection Unit that I thought you may find useful.

Also, the questions above are identical, or substantially similar to the
request you made in January and a response was provided to you on May 1^st
2015. The information has not changed significantly since then. Under
section 14(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 West Midlands Police
is not obliged to comply a request if it has previously complied with a
request for information that was made by that person (or persons acting in
concert), unless a reasonable interval has elapsed between compliance with
the first request and receipt of the second.

This letter represents a Refusal Notice for this particular request as a
reasonable interval has not elapsed between our previous response and this
request.

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

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

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:

[2]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.

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Courtney Martin
Freedom of Information Unit

Corporate Communications

Tel: 101

ext: 7630 3507

To report crime and anti-social behaviour which does not require an
emergency response please call 101. In an emergency call 999.

Website: [3]www.west-midlands.police.uk
Twitter: [4]www.twitter.com/wmpolice
Facebook: [5]www.facebook.com/westmidlandspolice
YouTube: [6]www.youtube.com/westmidlandspolice

Flickr: [7]www.flickr.com/westmidlandspolice

[8]View all our social network links

Our vision: Serving our communities, protecting them from harm

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.

References

Visible links
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3. https://exchange.wmpad.local/owa/redir.a...
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5. https://exchange.wmpad.local/owa/redir.a...
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