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Bonus Payment - 555/11
Dated: 07 Jun 2011
Date of request: 21/07/2011
Date of response: 16/08/2011
Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
Thank you for your email dated 21 July 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:
Please provide me with (i) the total bonus paid to your Chief Constable for the 10/11 financial year and (ii) the maximum bonus that your chief constable could have been paid in the 10/11 financial year.
The question relates to bonus payments for the year 10/11.
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 Finance Department of Northumbria Police and the Police Authority. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held in part by Northumbria Police.
i)The Chief Constables bonus is considered and paid in arrears. It has not been discussed or set for the 2010/11 payment and there are no plans for it to be considered in the immediate future.
ii) As the information you have requested at this point is accessible by other means I have not provided you with a copy of the information and will rely on Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You should therefore consider this a refusal for your request.
I have provided an explanation to this exemption below.
Section 21 (1) - Information accessible by other means
Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant is exempt information.
Information regarding the Chief Officer bonus scheme and Chief Office salaries are in the public domain. A simple calculation from the links should provide you with a response to this part of your request.
http://www.police-information.co.uk/policepay.htm#chief_officers_2010
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=chief+officer+bonus&meta=
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