Dear Ms McDonald

Reference No : DM279/13

Thank you for your application for information concerning the number of
sexual offence cases in 2011, 2012 and 2013 which have been referred to
the CPS and resulted in court action. This will be dealt with under the
terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request will now be considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act, subject
to the information not being exempt nor containing a reference to a third
party. In the event that we are not able to achieve this deadline you will
be informed at the earliest opportunity and given a revised time-scale.

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information you have requested. If this is the case you will be
informed and the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we
receive payment from you.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transfer to another
public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest possible
way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

**PLEASE NOTE** This FOI request is substantially similar to another one
you submitted to Merseyside Police 3 weeks ago, reference DM251/13.  Under
Section 12 of the FOI Act, as a reasonable interval has not yet elapsed
since the earlier request, this new request is being aggregated to the
earlier one for costing purposes.  Section 12(4) of the FOI Act states
that in such cases 'the estimated cost of complying with any of the
requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with
them all'.

Yours sincerely,

Mr D May
Disclosure Analyst
Information Bureau
Merseyside Police
PO Box 59, Liverpool. L69 1JD
Email : [1][Merseyside Police request email]

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References

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1. mailto:[Merseyside Police request email]

Dear Ms McDonald

I write regarding your recent Freedom Of Information request, reference
number DM279/13, which you submitted to Merseyside Police on 22nd November
and which reads as follows:

"I want to know the number of sexual offence cases there have been- ie
offences under the Sexual Offences Act- that have been referred to the CPS
and resulted in court action.

I would like the data divided into years so 2011, 2012 and 2013."

Having made some enquiries, I believe the request as it stands will not be
possible to answer within the time/cost limits defined by Section 12 of
the FOI Act. 

Although the majority of cases which go to court will have been referred
to the CPS first, this will not be true in all cases, especially as a
pilot scheme was introduced earlier this year granting Sergeants the power
to give charging authority.

In short, to answer the question it would be necessary to manually review
every individual case that resulted in a charge or summons to see if it
was referred to the CPS first.

If you just want the number of sexual offences that resulted in a charge
or summons, then it will be possible to provide you with a response within
the FOI time/cost contraints.

Please let me know if this is acceptable to you.

Yours sincerely

Mr D May

Disclosure Analyst

Information Bureau

Merseyside Police

============================================================
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended 
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.

If you have received this email in error please notify the sender as soon 
as possible.

This footnote confirms that all reasonable steps have been taken to 
ensure that this email message has been swept for the presence of 
computer viruses.

The views expressed in this communication may not necessarily be the
views of Merseyside Police.

All communications, including telephone calls and electronic messages to
and from Merseyside Police may be subject to monitoring and recording.
============================================================

Dear Ms McDonald

Response Letter - FOI Application DM279/13 (please quote in all
correspondence)

I write in connection with your request for information, which was
received by Merseyside Police on 22/11/2013, concerning:

(summary of request)offences under the Sexual Offences Act which have been
referred to the CPS in each of the last 3 years

Your request for information has been considered and I am not obliged to
supply the information that you have requested.

Section 17, Freedom of Information Act, 2000, requires Merseyside Police,
when refusing to provide such information (because the information is
exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states that fact,
(b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption
applies.

Reason for Decision:

Information exempt under Section 12 of the FOI Act.  Section 12 states
that information need notbe disclosed if the cost of locating / retrieving
that information exceeds £450, or 18 hours based on a cost of £25 per
hour.

Although the majority of cases which go to court will have been referred
to the CPS first, this will not be true in all cases, especially as a
pilot scheme was introduced earlier this year granting Sergeants the power
to give charging authority.  Therefore, to answer the question it would be
necessary to manually review every individual case that resulted in a
charge or summons to see if it was referred to the CPS first.  To do this
for such a large number of cases would easily exceed the 18-hour time/cost
limit.

This communication therefore serves as a Refusal Notice under the FOI Act.

Complaint Rights

Your attention is drawn to the information following this response, which
details your rights of review and of complaint.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write
to or e-mail me at the below address, quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

Mr D May
Disclosure Analyst
Information Access Unit
Information Bureau
Merseyside Police
PO BOX 59
LIVERPOOL L69 1JD
Tel: 0151 777 7021
Fax: 0151 777 7099
E-mail: [1][Merseyside Police request email]

Making a complaint or appeal about your Freedom of Information response

We accept that sometimes you may not agree with the decision we’ve made
about your Freedom of Information request. If this is the case there is an
internal complaints procedure that should be followed.

You should make your complaint in writing to:

Information Access Unit

Information Bureau
Merseyside Police

PO BOX 59

LIVERPOOL

L69 1JD

It should detail:

What the original request was

The nature of the complaint

Why you feel you should have received more information

Your complaint will be fully investigated and will be dealt with by a
staff member who was not involved in the original decision. We will write
to you to advise the outcome of your complaint.

If you are dissatisfied with the results of your complaint you have the
right to appeal to the Information Commissioner. He can be contacted at:

The Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

More information is available from the Information Commissioner's website

[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk

============================================================
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended 
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.

If you have received this email in error please notify the sender as soon 
as possible.

This footnote confirms that all reasonable steps have been taken to 
ensure that this email message has been swept for the presence of 
computer viruses.

The views expressed in this communication may not necessarily be the
views of Merseyside Police.

All communications, including telephone calls and electronic messages to
and from Merseyside Police may be subject to monitoring and recording.
============================================================

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Merseyside Police request email]
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/