Dear ,

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION  Our Ref:
004121/20

With reference to your e-mail received 28/07/2020 requesting information:

I would like to make the following Freedom of Information request with
regards to details of unlicensed music events (UMEs) and/or illegal raves
reported to and attended by officers from your police force in 2020 and
2019.

For each UME/illegal rave reported to and attended by officers, I would
like to know the following:

- The date of UME/illegal rave

- Its location (as specific as possible)

- Details of the event, including the approx. number of people in
attendance

- Whether any sections were issued

- Whether any arrests were made

- Whether any equipment or vehicles were seized

- Any other details of actions were taken by your police force in regards
to the monitoring and termination of each event

Please provide data for both 2020 and 2019, but with priority given to
2020, up until the most recent date for which data is available. Please
aim to provide the response to this FoI request in the form of a table -
ideally in an Excel or CSV format

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.

Freedom of Information requests relating to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

There is a new a National Policing Publication Strategy for Operation
Talla (COVID-19) as detailed by the National Chiefs’ Police Council
(NPCC).

If you submit any request for information held by Northamptonshire Police
in connection with Coronavirus (COVID-19) it is likely that the
information will be exempt under Section 22 Freedom of Information Act
2000 (Information intended for future publication), in line with the
National Policing Publication Strategy – Operation Talla.

Further details can be found on the NPCC website:
[1]https://www.npcc.police.uk/documents/FOI...

If you wish to discuss this any further then please contact the
undersigned.

Northamptonshire Police provides a review and appeals procedure within the
terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. If you decide to make an
appeal and, having followed the full process you are still dissatisfied,
you will then have the right to direct your comments to the Information
Commissioner who will give due consideration to the matter. See Appendix
'a' attached.

Northamptonshire Police routinely publish information on our website via
the Publication Scheme. The aim of the Publication Scheme is to promote
openness and transparency by voluntarily placing information into the
public arena.

The Disclosure Log contains copies of information that has been disclosed
by Northamptonshire 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.

[2]https://www.northants.police.uk/foi-ai/a...

Yours sincerely

Daniel FARDON PC 1191

Police Constable

Seconded to Information Unit

Tel : 101 | Ext. 341172 (If calling from outside of Northamptonshire,
please call 03000 111 222)

Address : Force Headquarters | Wootton Hall | Wootton Hall Park |
Northampton | NN4 0JQ

Northamptonshire Police – Fighting crime, protecting people

The content of this email should be treated as OFFICIAL - SENSITIVE unless
otherwise indicated

show quoted sections

Email:[email address]

Date: 26/10/2020

Our Ref: FPR0987654

Dear Requestor,

I am writing to you with regard to your outstanding Freedom of Information
request that is currently lodged with Northamptonshire Police.  

I write to advise you that Northamptonshire Police have a substantial
backlog in processing Freedom of Information Requests. Regrettably, one of
the delayed requests is yours. Northamptonshire Police would like to
apologise for that delay.

To improve this situation we have been working closely with the
Information Commissioners Office. As part of that work the Information
Commissioner has made a practice recommendation to us on how we should now
focus on achieving their compliance targets around New Freedom of
Information requests. I attach their recommendation.

The force is attempting to provide a long term solution to responding to
Freedom of Information requests by recruiting further staff into our
information unit and in the interim we are taking action to deal with the
backlog and put in place further measures to provide a more resilient
service.

To assist in making those improvements and in support of meeting future
demands, we would ask that if you still require a response to your current
Freedom of Information request(s) could you please advise us as such by
return of this email.

Your assistance in this matter would be very much appreciated, as it will
help us to improve our response times for future requests.

If we have not received a response from you within 14 days of the date of
this e-mail we will assume that you no longer require a response and your
request will be closed.

Yours Sincerely

Alasdair Fraser

Alasdair Fraser

Detective Sergeant 589

Information Unit

Email: [1][email address]

Wootton Hall

Northamptonshire Police

Force Headquarters.

NN4 0JQ

[2]cid:image001.png@01D62938.B76A4230

The content of this email should be treated as RESTRICTED unless otherwise
indicated

show quoted sections

Dear Alex Clark

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Our Ref: 004121/20

With reference to your e-mail received 28/07/20 requesting information reproduced below:

I would like to make the following Freedom of Information request with regards to details of unlicensed music events (UMEs) and/or illegal raves reported to and attended by officers from your police force in 2020 and 2019.

For each UME/illegal rave reported to and attended by officers, I would like to know the following:
- The date of UME/illegal rave
- Its location (as specific as possible)
- Details of the event, including the approx. number of people in attendance
- Whether any sections were issued
- Whether any arrests were made
- Whether any equipment or vehicles were seized
- Any other details of actions were taken by your police force in regards to the monitoring and termination of each event

Please provide data for both 2020 and 2019, but with priority given to 2020, up until the most recent date for which data is available.

I have to advise you that Northamptonshire Police is not obliged to provide this information you have requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please take this letter as a Refusal Notice to this particular request.
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Northamptonshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt within the provisions of the Act) is required to provide you, the applicant, with a Notice which:
a) states the fact that an exemption has been applied
b) specifies the exemption in question, and
c) states why the exemption applies (if that would not otherwise be apparent)
The statutory exemption applicable to the information not disclosed is as follows:

Section 12 - Exceed appropriate cost limit

The information you are requesting is not held by Northamptonshire Police in any reasonably retrievable form. The only means of establishing information of the nature you are requesting would be by way of manual examination of every report. Due to the nature of illegal raves and unlicensed music events, Northamptonshire Police experience limited numbers of such incidents. Therefore these are not recorded in an easily identifiable manner in our systems.

The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For Northamptonshire police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244

In an attempt to narrow the results keyword searching was used, using the term 'rave'. Unfortunately the search brings back any results which has any words that contain the word 'rave'. This includes numerous different words (extravehicular, contraventions, depravedness's, photoengravers, ravenousness's, travel, gravel, craven, graver, graven, graved, craves, craver, craved, braved, braver, braves, ravels, graves, thrave, ravers, ravens ect...). Our information retrieval process generally relies on a computer ran report which captures any information recorded upon the surface of a record or within specified fields. Where relevant information is held deeper in the record, or outside of a specified field, a manual assessment is usually required to retrieve that information.

My assessment for the review of in excess of 3000, would cost as follows - 3000 (minimum number of records) 3 minutes each (minimum) = over 150 hours at £25 per hour to respond to your request, which exceeds the 'appropriate limit' (currently £450 for 'prescribed costs').

In view of the above, and in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please take this letter as a Refusal Notice.

I am unable to suggest any practical way in which your request may be modified in order to satisfy your query or bring it within the 18 hours stipulated by the Regulations. I am however willing to consider any refinements that you are able to make to your request, in accordance with Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act. If you would like to look into refining your request please contact me.

I trust you find this information to be satisfactory but if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

Northamptonshire Police provides a review and appeals procedure within the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. If you decide to make an appeal and, having followed the full process you are still dissatisfied, you will then have the right to direct your comments to the Information Commissioner who will give due consideration to the matter. See Appendix 'a' attached.

Regards

Dale

[cid:image001.jpg@01D28272.A1150E40]

PC 324 Dale Hillyer
Information Unit | Freedom of Information
Northamptonshire Police

*Telephone 101 Ext 344376
* Email [email address]<mailto:[email address]>
*Address Force Headquarters, Wootton Hall, Wotton Hall Park, Northampton

[cid:image002.png@01D28272.A1150E40]

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