Mr  Hunter
 
Unfortunately there is no time period in your request as to the search
period you are interested in.
Therefore, to allow us to progress, please provide - ie for the year
2019..
 

 1. Please therefore provide copies of or links to any and all
documentation regarding this Legal Test and any information held as to
how it should be or is applied, identifying which members of staff are
responsible for applying it.

 2. If possible, within the cost constraints please also provide any
statistical information to detail how many times this test has been
undertaken by calendar month, and having been applied, how many of
those instances resulted in the issue being referred to the IOPC and
how many issues remained within Northumbria Police and any reasons
provided for those decisions.

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Hunter

We are not obliged, nor do we intend to, work backwards by month until the cost limit is reached.

Please therefore provide the search periods so we may progress your request.

Regards
FOI team

www.northumbria.police.uk

We are a flexible working organisation. Please only respond to this email in your own working hours.

'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

Mr Hunter
 
There is no requirement to continue research until the 18 hour time limit
is reached and such a request can be classed as invalid.
 
It is for the requestor to submit a request and ask for what they are
seeking and the public authority will begin the research into that
request. During that research (which will take time) it may be discovered
that the request will exceed the time limit.  At that point it may be
assessed that a more limited request may allow for a response to be
obtained and advice can be provided.
 
We can make a suggestion to limit your request to one year, however this
should not be seen as an indication of what can or cannot be obtained and
this is solely based on the current limited knowledge of what may be
achievable.
 
Should you wish for us to proceed based on this suggestion, please confirm
this by reply or alternatively please provide a timescale for our research
parameters.
We shall be happy to then progress your submission.
 
Regards
 
FOI team
 
 
[1]www.northumbria.police.uk
 
 
We are a flexible working organisation. Please only respond to this email
in your own working hours.
 
'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 - [2]http://www.northumbria.police.uk

References

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Thank you for your response.

To avoid doubt please advise how you would like this 4 year period, ie by calendar year, financial year, or something else?

Once clear we can progress accordingly

Regards
FOI team

www.northumbria.police.uk

We are a flexible working organisation. Please only respond to this email in your own working hours.

'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

Mr Hunter

This does not answer the question posed.

Noted you have asked for the info broken down by month - but you have not stated if this is to be broken down by month for calendar year , financial year or other.
Please advise

www.northumbria.police.uk

We are a flexible working organisation. Please only respond to this email in your own working hours.

'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

Dear Mr Hunter

To clarify and allow us to progress, can you please confirm that you would like data for the previous 48 completed months prior to this month.

Kind regards

Information Management Unit
www.northumbria.police.uk

We are a flexible working organisation. Please only respond to this email in your own working hours.

'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 dated 11 February 2021 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:

The statutory guidance issued by the IOPC mandates that any allegation
against police which meets the definition of Serious Corruption must be
passed to the IOPC.

The definition provided is:

"Any conduct that could fall within the definition of the statutory
offence of "Corruption or other improper exercise of police powers and
privileges"

Along with

"Perverting the course of justice or other conduct that is likely to
seriously harm the administration of justice, in particular the criminal
justice system"

The CPS specifies:

"The course of justice starts when: an event has occurred, from which it
can reasonably be expected that an investigation will follow;"

Northumbria Police Officers have repeatedly refused to record allegations
of crime in breach of the Home Office Counting Rules requirement which
state:

"Whether to Record An incident will be recorded as a crime (notifiable
offence) for ‘victim related’ offences if, on the balance of probability:

(A)the circumstances of the victims report amount to a crime as defined by
law (the police will determine this, based on their knowledge of the law
and counting rules); and

(B) there is no credible evidence to the contrary immediately available.

A belief by the victim (or a person reasonably assumed to be acting on
behalf of the victim, that a crime has occurred is usually sufficient to
justify its recording."

So despite an event occurring, from which it can reasonably be expected
that an investigation will follow, and the officer not having any credible
evidence to the contrary immediately available, the officer refuses to
record the allegation of crime.

Formal allegations against those officers specifying that their actions
perverted the course of justice have simply never been referred to the
IOPC by Northumbria Police.

The IOPC have specified that Northumbria Police apply a "Legal Test" to
all allegations and it is only if the allegation meets that legal test
that it will be referred to them.

1. Please therefore provide copies of or links to any and all
documentation regarding this Legal Test and any information held as to how
it should be or is applied, identifying which members of staff are
responsible for applying it.

2. If possible, within the cost constraints please also provide any
statistical information to detail how many times this test has been
undertaken by calendar month, and having been applied, how many of those
instances resulted in the issue being referred to the IOPC and how many
issues remained within Northumbria Police and any reasons provided for
those decisions.

After we sought a timescale for point 2 you stated:

By law under section 16 (1) of the FOIA you are required to provide advice
and assistance to any person making a request.

"(1)It shall be the duty of a public authority to provide advice and
assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do
so, to persons who propose to make, or have made, requests for information
to it."

Your statement appears to be saying that it would be unreasonable to
respond to my request.

You think it more reasonable for me to ask for 10 years of information, so
you can respond with an exemption claiming it exceeds the cost, so I can
ask you to specify based on your knowledge estimates of the costs involved
for you to specify how many months you would be able to process within
cost so I can then ask for that amount of information?

How about we skip the long version and under section 16(1) you provide the
advice and assistance to me by supplying:

A.  a cost estimate for responding to question 1

B. Subtract that estimate from the maximum limit under the act before

C. specify a cost estimate of providing the most recent months figures in
relation to question 2

D. Divide the figure arrived at at point B by the figure you estimate at
point C before

E. You disclose how many months you believe you will be able to tabulate
to provide the information requested in relation to question 2 within the
constraints of the law.

I personally believe that under section 16 of the FOIA it is a perfectly
reasonable request that I am making.

If you believe my request is unreasonable then please specify your reasons
for that belief and I will refer the issue to the ICO for a decision.

Your further comments can be found on your submissions from the
whatdotheyknow website.

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 within
Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested
is held in part by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

1. No information held.  We do not have a specific ‘legal test’. The
relevant legislation and guidance is applied and a referral made where
necessary.

In order to assist  I have provided details of the relevant
legislation/guidance below for you. 

IOPC Statutory Guidance – available on IOPC website

Home Office Statutory Guidance on Professional Standards , Performance and
Integrity in Policing – available on Home Office website

Police Misconduct Regulations – available on Legislation.gov

2. N/A – Given the relationship of this question to Question 1 and the
response provided.

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

Tim Pasola

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...