Northumbria Police

FAQ Details

Charges For Special Police Services - 669/10

Dated: 07 Jun 2011

Date of request: 27/10/2010

Date of response: 12/11/2010

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

Thank you for your letter in which you request access to certain information which has been transferred to Northumbria Police by Northumbria Police Authority.

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:

We write further to our letter dated 6 October 2010 in which we explained that we are currently conducting a review of police charges for special police services to private vents.  The purpose of this investigation is more particularly in relation to the current charging policy and approach of Northumbria Police Authority (the Police) for the policing of special events such as sporting and other large scale private events that require additional police services that are dealt with by the Police.

Special Police Services and Costing of sporting events

We have previously requested a breakdown of Police costing in our letter dated 6 October 2010 for special police services to which we are currently awaiting a full response. In order to assess the reasonableness of the cost structure that the Police have put in place for private events, please respond to the following questions: 

Sporting Events

1. As far as we are aware, sporting events are one of the major private events which require special police services. We also understand that the main sports to demand such services from the Police are football, rugby league and rugby union, cricket and horse racing. Please confirm any other sports which require significant levels of special police services.

2. Of all the sporting events that require special police services, it is our understanding that professional football requires the greatest amount of special police services compared with other sporting events. Please confirm if this is correct. As stated above, we have already requested that you provide a breakdown of costing for general special police services. Please confirm whether you use the same fixed scale of charges for football clubs and also whether you use the same fixed scale for all football clubs within Northumbria and any other football clubs which your force supervises. If not please explain the reasoning for the difference in treatment. We would ask you primarily to confirm whether the same cost structure is used for Newcastle United, Sunderland and Middlesbrough home games.

3. Please confirm the basis of your scale of charges and whether the same scale is used for all special police services under section 25 of the Police Act 1996. If football is charged on a different scale to other public and/or private events, please explain why and on what grounds. We specifically request that you disclose the basis upon which you charge for special police services to the St James Park, Stadium of Light, Riverside Stadium, Gateshead International Stadium, Kingston Park and any other stadia for other sporting events. We would also request charging policies for non-stadia events such as the Great North Run. This request is to understand whether different stadia or venues are costed differently so please provide an explanation if this is the case. It is also to understand whether the same and/or different stadia are costed differently for different types of sporting event, e.g. is football costed differently to rugby etc?  
    
   Non-Sporting Events

4. Please provide details of your fee structure for non-sporting events and confirm whether sporting events or specifically football events are served by way of a separate police charging policy. This would include charging for organised protests, festivals, parades, concerts and any other public or private events requiring special police services.

As stated the purpose of this investigation is to request a detailed breakdown of how the Police cost special police services.  This letter requests specific information on sporting events and how special police services for such events are costed in comparison to non-sporting events.

In response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

1. Athletics (Great North Run).

2. For the Northumbria Police Force, football has required the greatest amount of special police services compared with other sporting events.  The rates charged for general Special Police Services is the same rate applied to football clubs.  The same rate is applied to any football club within the Northumbria Force area.   
    
   Please note that we hold no information in relation to 'Middlesbrough home games' - as Middlesbrough does not fall within our force area.  You may wish to contact Cleveland Police for this information, in order to aid and assist you I have provided their FOI team email address:- publicinformationunit@cleveland.pnn.police.uk

3. The basis of our charges is the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Charging Methodology, Title "Guidance on Charging for Police Services".  In order to aid and assist you I have provided a copy of this document, attached below.
   
   Football is charged at the same rates as other events.   
    
   The basis for our charges for non-stadia events such as the Great North Run is the ACPO Charging Methodology, Title "Guidance on Charging for Police Services"

4. The basis for our charges for non-sporting events is the ACPO Charging Methodology, Title "Guidance on Charging for Police Services".  There is no separate policy for football events. 

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.

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

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