Dear Daniel

Thank you for your request below.

Unfortunately we are unable to conduct searches for an infinite time
period.  Therefore, if you could please supply a search period, to suit
your requirements it would be appreciated, for example data for 2019.

Once a search period has been received we will be able to process your
request.

Kind regards

FOI Team

[1]www.northumbria.police.uk

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality
Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect
the communities we serve.'

show quoted sections

Dear Daniel

Thank you for your email below.  I note that both in the subject line and
the body of the email you refer to a “Internal Review”.  However, as you
are yet to receive our response to your request we are unable to conduct
an internal review.

We did seek clarification from you in order for us to progress your
request and it appears that you have included this in your email also,
hence we will now begin to process your request.

Kind regards

FOI Team

[1]www.northumbria.police.uk

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality
Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect
the communities we serve.'

show quoted sections

Daniel

The heading of your e mail and the first line of it suggest you are seeking an internal review.
At this point we have simply asked you for clarity on your submission, ie the time period, to allow us to progress.
Please therefore confirm that this is an error on your part and that you are simply responding to our request for clarity, in order that we can progress your submission?

Regards
FOI team

www.northumbria.police.uk

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect the communities we serve.'

show quoted sections

Dear Daniel

Thank you for clarifying.

Kind regards

FOI Team

www.northumbria.police.uk

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect the communities we serve.'

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

Thank you for your email in which you provide clarification of 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 3 November 2020 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

[1]www.northumbria.police.uk | [2]www.northumbria-pcc.gov.uk

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality
Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect
the communities we serve.'

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

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

Thank you for your email dated 5 October 2020 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:

“For the last two calendar years 2018 & 2019:

1. How many casualties were a result of drink driving by year & postcode
within the constabulary?

2. How many arrests were a result of drink driving by year & postcode
within the constabulary?

3. How many breath test failures by drivers by year & postcode within the
constabulary?

4. How many drivers received a driver conviction within the constabulary
by year & postcode?”

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
Criminal Justice and Corporate Development Department 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.

To establish a response at point 4 alone would require approximately
20,000 speeding offences to be located and manually reviewed to establish
which were specific to the information requested.  Even at a conservative
estimate of 5 minutes per record, which we have considered as reasonable,
we have estimated that to extract this information would take over 1,666
hours, therefore 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.

Although excess cost removes Northumbria Police's obligations under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied
information below, relative to your request, retrieved or available before
it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded.  I trust this is
helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees
regulations for the remainder of your request.

With regards to the whole of the information supplied below the following
caveats should be noted:

·       We cannot provide offence data by postcode.  As such, data has
been provided based on force sector and where the incident or arrest
occurred.

·       Drink-driving is a non-notifiable offence and as such the data we
can provide is limited.

·       Notably, whilst we can provide the sector for an arrest, we would
not be able to provide this for any non-notifiable offence.

·       Data wherein it is unclear whether an offender was under the
influence of alcohol or drugs has been provided separately.

·       Please see our response to point 1 for specific notes/caveats.

1.     The following caveats should be noted with regards to the data
supplied for this point:

·       This question has been answered as a count of the offence of
causing death/serious injury by dangerous driving wherein alcohol was
explicitly stated to have been a factor within the incident or crime via
means of a breath test on those involved.

      The following should be noted regarding these cases:

·       Following an accident or collision sufficient to lead to any party
requiring medical attention, it may not be possible to conduct a
successful breath test on either party.  This may be due to someone
sustaining sufficient injury to be unable to provide the breath specimen
needed, or a doctor refusing to allow a test to be undertaken.

·       A breath test must be undertaken within a certain period of time
following the incident.  It may be in the case in some scenarios that a
driver cannot be tracked down within this period.

2018 Count
Gateshead Inn West & Whickham 1
Sunderland North 1
2019  
Hexham 1

2&3.  The following caveats should be noted with regards to the data
supplied for these points:

·       Data for both these points has been taken as a count of arrests
for drink-driving or disposals for drink-driving. 

·       Note that in both cases the count of those who have refused a
breath test sample has been included. 

·       We are unable to provide sector in relation to disposal data. 

·       Further data has been provided, namely those cases wherein it is
unclear as to whether drink or drugs were present.

      Number of arrests as a result of drink driving by year:

  Alcohol or breath test Unclear whether
refusal alcohol or drugs
Sector 2018 2019 2018 2019
Alnwick 29 35 7 6
Ashington 36 34 10 10
Bedlington 12 23 2 4
Benwell/Elswick 34 29 7 11
Berwick 37 36 7 12
Blakelaw/Kenton/Fawdon 16 13 4 2
Blyth 28 48 8 13
Boldon & East Shields 26 31 7 13
Byker/Walker 38 48 7 10
Central 69 87 15 21
Cramlington 32 44 4 10
Fenham/Scotswood 33 17 4 4
Gateshead & Central Quays 36 42 10 12
Gateshead East & Felling 26 22 9 6
Gateshead Inn West & Whickham 34 40 4 7
Gateshead South 15 35 2 9
Gateshead South & Birtley 12 13 5 4
Gateshead West & Blaydon 20 21 4 8
Gosforth/Great Park 26 24 4 8
Hebburn & Jarrow 34 29 9 10
Hexham 17 31 1 7
Houghton 31 40 8 9
Jesmond/Heaton 31 30 4 10
Killingworth 28 37 6 14
Morpeth 22 24 6 4
North Shields 42 43 9 11
Prudhoe 24 24 5 5
Riverside & West 65 78 17 24
Sunderland Central 38 43 13 20
Sunderland East 15 22 6 10
Sunderland North 52 57 16 24
Sunderland South 21 21 6 6
Sunderland West 32 32 7 9
Wallsend 48 50 14 12
Washington 43 46 9 15
Westerhope/Newburn 44 47 5 9
Whitley Bay 32 38 11 13

      Number of breath test failures by drivers by year:

  Alcohol or breath test refusal Unclear whether alcohol or drugs
Year 2018 2019 2018 2019
Count 1278 1339 108 145

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

Michael Cleugh

Data Protection and Disclosure Advisor

[NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED]

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality
Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect
the communities we serve.'

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...