Complaints

The request was refused by Essex Police.

Dear Essex Police,

Please provide the following information for all complaints received by Essex Police to date, broken down by month and year:

a. Number received
b. Number refused (and reasons categorised)
c. Number actioned within statutory deadlines.
d. Number actioned outside of statutory deadlines.
e. Number of resolutions by category.
f. Penalties imposed as a direct/indirect result of failure to meet statutory requirements.

Yours faithfully,

Mr S D Harmon

Data FOI Essex,

1 Attachment

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference.

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days.  The Act does not specify a limit to the number of
information requests a public authority may receive or the number of
requests or questions an applicant may submit.  However, there are
exemptions in the Act that can apply and these include where the cost of
complying with the request would extend beyond the reasonable cost limit,
(currently 18 hours or £450), or if the request is otherwise manifestly
unreasonable in its scope or nature. 

 

Requests that ask a great many questions, or a number of detailed requests
submitted at the same time, may make it necessary for Essex Police to
refuse the requests wholly or in part. The exemption at s14 may be engaged
if the burden on the authority is increased through multiple requests on
differing subjects

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has responsibility for
providing oversight and guidance for the legislation and they have
produced advice for applicants on submitting effective requests.  Further
information can be found on the Commissioner’s website at
[1]www.ico.gov.uk specific information relating to submitting a request
can be found at:
[2]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

                                                      

While we process your request, please take the time to consider the ICO’s
advice and whether you feel it may be beneficial to amend or refine your
request. Our team is happy to discuss your request with you and will be
able to provide advice as to what kind of information will be available
from Essex Police.

 

Kind regards

 

Jessica Casey

Information Officer

Data Protection & Freedom of Information

Information Management

Continuous Improvement

Essex Police Headquarters

External Tel: 101 ext 150030

E-Mail:[email address]

Fax: 01245 452256 (int: 150045)

Non Emergency Telephone Number: 101 

 

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Dear Essex Police,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Essex Police's handling of my FOI request 'Complaints'.

You have breached the statutory deadline for providing a response.

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

Yours faithfully,

Mr S D Harmon

Dear Essex Police,

Could you please confirm the current status of the internal review, and when I can expect to receive any reply?

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

Yours faithfully,

Mr S D Harmon

Kerry Nicholson 42006441,

2 Attachments

Please accept our apologies in regard to the delay in responding to your
original request. This unit has had a substantial increase in FOI requests
which has resulted in a delay to the service provided from this unit.

Your enquiry

Please provide the following information for all complaints received by
Essex Police to date, broken down by month and year:

 

a. Number received

b. Number refused (and reasons categorised) c. Number actioned within
statutory deadlines.

d. Number actioned outside of statutory deadlines.

e. Number of resolutions by category.

f. Penalties imposed as a direct/indirect result of failure to meet
statutory requirements.

Having completed my enquiries I am able to respond as follows:

When responding to a request for information under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act, a public authority is not obliged to provide
information if the authority estimates that the cost of the retrieval of
the information requested would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18
hours work). The costs criteria relates to a request in its entirety,
which means that if we cannot retrieve all of the information requested
within the costs limit, we are not obliged to retrieve any of the
information requested.

 

Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act states that a public
authority is not obliged to:

“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that
the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate
limit.”

 

(2) Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its
obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the
estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the
appropriate limit.

 

 

We have difficulty in answering your questions, Essex Police receive
complaints throughout the business, verbally and in writing across the
division. To trace and collate all complaints would exceed the cost and
time limits mentioned above to even establish the type of data held. To
further breakdown down any data received into a further split would
qualify as the creation of data as the data cannot be created by means of
a data query. Complaints are held by different departments on different
systems and not centralised.

 

In accordance with section 17 (5)  of the Act, this communication must act
as a refusal notice to comply with section 1(1)(a) of the FOI Act as
detailed above by virtue of exception at Section 12(2) of the FOI Act
2000.

 

Section 16 (1) of the FOIA provides that a public authority is required to
provide advice and assistance, and I can confirm that the following links
provide details regarding complaints received by our Professional
Standards Department published and regularly updated on the following
link. [1]http://www.essex.pfcc.police.uk/complime...
[2]http://www.essex.pfcc.police.uk/reportin...

 

This unit can provide details regarding the number of complaints in
respect of Data protection issues, FOIs, Court Orders, Insurance Claims,
discretionary disclosures, record deletions/data correction but only from
2017. Only the number of requests and complaints received can be provided,
the additional details regarding resolutions will be held within each
file. This information is held in a format that allows for a query tool to
be run. Results would have to collated and data created. This is not a
requirement under the act.

 

 

Essex Police trusts that the links and information provided is of
assistance. Thank you for your interest in Essex Police.

 

 

Information Rights Team

Information Management Department

Strategic Change Directorate

Direct Dial 01245 452647

Internal extension – 150030

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Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests
[4]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to:  [5][Essex Police request email]

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

           

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [6]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

 

 

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