Northumbria Police

FAQ Details

Disposals - 512/11

Dated: 07 Jun 2011

Date of request: 20/07/2011

Date of response: 26/07/2011

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

Thank you for your email dated 20 June 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:

1. Do reprimands, formal warnings or cautions (non-charge disposals) count towards your Force’s detection rate?

2. How many non-charge disposals were issued in the last two years to persons under 18 years of age?

3. Please supply the information by age range. 2009/10
   Non-charge disposals issued to persons under 14 years old
   Non-charge disposals issued to persons between 15-16 years old
   Non-charge disposals issued to persons 17 years old and above

4. Can you categorise the non-charge disposals by type of offence?
   Offences committed by persons under 14 years old
   Offences committed by persons between 15-16 years old
   Offences committed by persons 17 years old and above

5. Please provide a copy of procedure for your officers to follow when issuing a non-charge disposal.

6. How many non-charge disposals were issued by your Force, where the offender was informed that the disposal would be on record for 5 years or until he/she reached the age of 21?

7. Of those non-charge disposals which were issued where the offender was informed that the disposal would be on record for 5 years or until he/she reached the age of 21 please specify how many offenders’ records continue to be held despite the passage of 5 years or the offender having reached the age of 21?

8. Where the case requires the attendance of a responsible adult do your officers advise the responsible adult that the non-charge disposal is a criminal record and will remain on the offender’s record until they are 101?

9. Do your officers advise the responsible adult that there is a list of careers / occupations for which they will have to declare this record and that their choice of career/occupation is now restricted?

10. Is the Chief Constable aware that a number of Colleges and Universities ore now excluding persons with non-charge disposals from certain courses, such as teaching?

11. Is it the opinion of the Chief Constable that the impact on these young people’s lives is proportionate to the crime committed?

12. If the law were to be changed in this area, is the Chief Constable in favour of reintroducing the ACPO "Stepping Down" Guidelines?

13. lf the law is changed and it is decided that "Stepping Down" will only be applied to a small range of crimes, would the Chief Constable support this for crimes committed only after the introductory date. i.e. would the Chief Constable support the removal of all current non-charge disposals at the offender’s age of 21?

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 Corporate Development and Criminal Justice Departments of Northumbria Police.  I can confirm that the information you have requested is held, in part, by Northumbria Police.

I can disclose the located information to you as follows.

1.  Yes, reprimands, formal warnings or cautions (non-charge disposals) do contribute to the force detection rate.

2, 3 & 4.  See attached below

5.  Such schemes are national and are administered in accordance with nationally formalised directives from the Home Office and Youth Justice Board.  As the policies and procedures are 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.

This information is freely available via the internet, in order to aid and assist your further I have attached the relevant links below:-
Home Office Circular 14/2006
Final Warning Scheme Guidance 2002
Section 65 and 66 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Section 56 Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000

6.  None after the 31 March 2006 when new Retention Guidelines were introduced.  The force does not hold numbers of the disposals which were current on the Police National Computer prior to that date.

7.  All out of court disposals which were less than 5 years old on the 31 March 2006 continue to be held on the Police National Computer.  The force does not hold details of the numbers.  When introduced, the Retention Rules had the affect of retaining all those existing cautions, reprimands and warnings on the PNC until the subject was deemed to have reached 100 years of age or died.
 
8.  Yes, in relation to the criminal record.  No, re the age of 101, they are advise the record will remain indefinately although the record actually remains until the person is 100 years old or dies whichever the earliest.

9.  No, as there is not a prescriptive list of careers and it is not a requirement of our officers.

10-13.  These questions are asking for opinion only and not recorded information therefore they are not valid under Section 8 of the FOI Act.

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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