Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) Request 366/22 - Drink Driving
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 in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We are in the process of dealing with your request and a response should be provided to you by 1 April 2022 which is in accordance with the legislation.

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances delays may be unavoidable. We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to process your request as quickly as is practicable.

Yours sincerely

Information Management Unit

www.northumbria.police.uk | www.northumbria-pcc.gov.uk

'Our vision is to deliver an outstanding police service; working with communities to prevent crime and disorder and protect the most vulnerable people from harm.'

show quoted sections

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

Thank you for your email received 04 February 2022 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 at the time of a request, by a Public Authority
(including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I’d like to make a request
regarding information on drink driving in your area.

Specifically, I’d like to request information on the following:

1.     How many collisions have there been due to drink driving in your
district from 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021?

2.     Deaths of drivers relating to drink driving in your district from
1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021?

3.     Deaths of pedestrians relating to drink driving in your district
from 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021?

4.     Number of people arrested under drink driving in your district from
1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021?

What was the court disposal of those charged with drink driving related
charges? Numbers of people convicted, and numbers of people cautioned in
your district from 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021?

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 both the
Corporate Development and Criminal Justice  Departments of Northumbria
Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held in
part by Northumbria Police however cannot be disclosed for the following
reasons.

The information requested is not already held statistically nor is it held
centrally or in a format that would allow its extraction within the
permitted 18 hour threshold.

There are approximately 8000 collisions recorded in the force area per
year. Each of those would require a manual review to establish how many
related to drink driving.  This has been estimated as exceeding 666 hour
at point 1 alone. (Likewise a response to points 2, 3 and 5 would in their
own right each exceed the 18 hour threshold) As such  Section 12(1) of the
Freedom of Information Act would apply. This section does not oblige a
public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority
estimated that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the
appropriate limit of 18 hours, equating to £450.00

You should consider this to be a refusal notice under Section 17 of the
Act for your request.

As parts of your request would exceed the prescribed limit, as defined by
the Act, there is no requirement for Northumbria Police to provide a
response to the remaining parts of your request. However, in order to
provide you with some assistance, under Section 16 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, an initial assessment of the information that may be
provided within the time constraints would be question 4 only.

If this would be useful, you may wish to refine and resubmit your request
accordingly.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you
to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as
to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent
the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.

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.

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.

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 wider
public interest.

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

I have provided the relevant link below.

[1]https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/about...

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, attached.

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

Gary Richardson

Data Protection and Disclosure Advisor

[NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED]

'Our vision is to deliver an outstanding police service; working with
communities to prevent crime and disorder and protect the most vulnerable
people from harm.'

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, 2018. 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

References

Visible links
1. https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/about...