PPE and Exemptions
Dear Police Service of Northern Ireland,
This FOI is regarding CAPES policy and PPE, specifically respirator type equipment.
1. How many officers are subject to mandatory requirements to be clean shaven at all times in the area of a seal of a respirator mask (eg JSP Force 8 mask) and in what departments are they? For example please break down to TSG, Search and Rescue, HMSU, ARU etc as required.
2. How many officers have submitted exemptions to the requirement to shave and been issued with a respirator of a different type, ie a full face mask?
3. How many exemptions have been sought on religious grounds? How many have been granted?
4. How many exemptions have been sought on medical grounds? How many have been granted?
5. How many have been sought on any other grounds and advise what these “other” grounds may be? How many have been granted?
6. Regarding exemptions on religious grounds, please advise how many have been granted by religious grouping, ie - how many exemptions to Muslim officers/how many to Protestant/Christian/Catholic/etc.
Yours faithfully,
Robert Jones
This e-mail has been marked OFFICIAL [PUBLIC];
11th May 2023
Dear Mr. Jones,
FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000
I write in connection with your request for information dated 11th May
2023 which was received by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)
on 11th May 2023. I note you seek access to the following information:
PPE and Exemptions
This request will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. A response should be sent to you within 20 working
days. The Freedom of Information team will advise you in writing if there
are any delays in responding to your request and will keep you advised of
progress.
If your request is unclear and clarification is required the 20 day
legislative time limit dictated by the Freedom of Information Act 2000
will be stopped until we receive clarification of your request. The ICO
guidance at paragraph 40 of the link below sets out that the clock begins
anew the day after the clarification is received. It states:
“If the requester subsequently provides enough detail to enable the
authority to identify and locate the information, then the authority must
respond to the clarified request within a new 20 working day time limit
with the ‘clock’ starting the day after it receives the required
clarification.“
The link for this is:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...
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Yours sincerely,
David
Corporate Information Branch
PSNI HQ Brooklyn
References
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1. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...
2. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
This e-mail has been marked OFFICIAL [PUBLIC];
Dear Mr Jones,
I refer to the above freedom of information request.
I note this request is currently on day 21. Unfortunately on this
occasion, the PSNI have not met the legislative timeframe of responding to
your request within 20 days.
Please accept our apologies for the delay.
I can assure you that our Branch is progressing your request, we will
release our response as soon as we are in a position to do so.
Gilbert
Gilbert Martin
Corporate Information Branch
EXT 33563
DDI 028 9056 1563
[1]Macintosh HD:Users:marion:Desktop:Email Signature Image alt-01.jpg
References
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1. https://www.psni.police.uk/
This e-mail has been marked OFFICIAL [PUBLIC];
Subject: FOI-2023-01567
12th June 2023
Dear Mr. Jones,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000
I refer to your request for information dated 11th May 2023 which was
received by the Police Service of Northern Ireland on 11th May 2023
concerning:
PPE and Exemptions
Please find attached response to your request.
Yours sincerely
Gilbert
Corporate Information Branch
PSNI HQ Brooklyn
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