FAQ Details
Police Injury Pensions - 439/11
Dated: 26 Jun 2011
Date of request: 26/05/2011
Date of response: 26/06/2011
Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
Thank you for your letter dated 26 May 2011 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 by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
a) How many applications the Police Authority has per year for new police injury pensions for the last 6 years;
b) The approximate cost to the Police Authority of instructing an SMP to deal with each new case;
c) How many reviews of existing police injury pensions have been sought by former officers each year in the last 6 years;
d) The approximate cost to the Police Authority of instructing an SMP to deal with each such review initiated by a former police officer;
e) How many reviews of existing police injury pensions have been initiated by the Police Authority in each year in the last 6 years;
f) The approximate cost to the Police Authority of instructing an SMP to deal with each such review initiated by the Police Authority;
g) How many appeals the Police Authority has received against decisions of the SMP to the PMAB relating to police injury pensions in each of the last 6 years;
h) The approximate cost to the Police Authority of:
i) The costs of the PMAB for each such appeal; and
ii) The cost of instructing an SMP to deal with each such appeal.
i) How many applications the Police Authority have had for a reconsideration of decisions of the SMP or the PMAB relating to police injury pensions in each of the last 6 years, and in respect of each such application:
i) Whether it was granted or refused; and
ii) If granted, the approximate costs to the Police Authority of dealing with the referral back to either the SMP or the PMAB."
In response:
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 the HR Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held, in part, by Northumbria Police, however can not be disclosed for the following reason.
To provide information which meets the criteria of your request, particularly at questions a and e prior to 2007, would entail a member of staff manually searching over 600 records. Even at a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record we have estimated that to extract this information would take over 50 hours, therefore Section 12 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 that part of 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.
a) The number of applications per year for new police injury pensions:-
2011 - None
2010 - 3
2009 - 8
2008 - 2
2007 - 2
b) The cost of the Selected Medical Practitioners (SMP's) time in dealing with an injury award application can range from £300-£1,300. The costs vary in each case depending upon the nature/complexity of the case and the work involved for the SMP. This is for an application request only and does not include cost of any possible appeal.
c) No information held. Records of injury award reviews are not separated between those initiated by Northumbria Police and those by former officers.
d) The cost of the SMP's time can range from £300-£1,300. As per the above, the costs vary in each case depending upon the nature/complexity of the case and the work involved for the SMP. Again this is the cost of review only and does not include the cost of the SMP's time for appeal.
e) The number of reviews of existing police injury pensions, initiated by the Police Authority:-
2011 - All reviews are currently on hold pending Home Office advice/guidance
2010 - 23 reviews commenced but were placed on hold following instruction from the Home Office
2009 - 85 reviews undertaken and completed
2007/08 - 5 reviews undertaken
f) The approximate cost of instructing an SMP to deal with each such review is £300 - £1,300 - as per questions (b) and (d).
g) The number of appeals received against decisions of the SMP to the PMAB relating to police injury pensions:-
2011 - None
2010 - 1
2009 - 50
2008 - None
2007 - 5
2006 - 1
2005 - 5
2004 - 10
h) i) The costs of the PMAB for each such appeal is £6,200 + VAT for a 3 person Appeal Board.
ii) The cost of instructing an SMP to deal with each such appeal is approximately £1,000 - £1,500 - again depending upon nature of case (1 day to attend Appeal Board and 1 day to prepare).
i) No information held in relation to this part of your request.
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.
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.
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 which can be found at: http://www.northumbria.police.uk/foi/disclosurelog/foicomprights.asp
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
Direct Dial: 01661 868347