FAQ Details
Policing of London Riots - 673/11
Dated: 27 Sep 2011
Date of request: 02/09/2011
Date of response: 27/09/2011
Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')(FOIA)
Thank you for your email dated 2 September 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 officers from your force travelled to London during August 2011 to assist with policing in the wake of the civil disturbances?
b) How many of those were accommodated overnight in London?
c) How many nights of accommodation did they require?
d) Please give details of the accommodation (eg name of hotel)
- a) What was the total cost of the accommodation required in Q1?
b) Who will ultimately meet this cost (eg your force, the Metropolitan Police, a local authority or another agency?)
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 both the Operations and Finance Departments of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held, in part, by Northumbria Police.
I have decided to disclose the located information to you as follows.
- a) There have been 6 separate deployments between 8 August and 11 September 2011, inclusive. Deployment numbers as follows:-
i) 78
ii) 82
iii) 80
iv) 80
v) 80
vi) 80.
b) All were accommodated overnight in London.
c) The number of nights accommodation required was as follows:-
i) 2 nights
ii) 6 nights
iii) 4 nights
iv) 4 nights
v) 4 nights
vi 4 nights
d) We will not be disclosing the information requested at this point of your request, and in doing so will rely on the following exemption:-Section 31 Law Enforcement
Section 31 is a prejudice based qualified exemption which means that there is a requirement to evidence the harm that would be caused in disclosure as well as carrying out a public interest test, which I have set out below.
Harm
The information required goes into areas that will be integral to emergency planning at a local and national level. Accommodation for officers forms part of the strategic and tactical dependency central to the command and control of critical and major incidents. Release of this detail could compromise the integrity of policing operations and introduce unnecessary risk into the maintenance of policing operations should this information fall into the hands of those elements who might wish to disrupt or even disable on a local level effective police emergency command and control.
Factors favouring disclosure
The public would be reassured on the use of public funds and the transparency of police operations.Factors favouring non disclosure
Disclosure would prejudice future operations and compromise law enforcement tactics. It could hinder the prevention or detection of crime and the integrity of policing operations.Balance Test
Effective emergency planning is critical to major incidents. As disclosure would impact on future operations, the balance is not in favour of disclosure.
- a) No information held. The total costs of the accommodation will not be available until all invoices and any expense claims are received and paid. It is anticipated that this will not be before the end of October 2011.
b) It is expected that these costs will be met by the Metropolitan Police under Mutual aid cost recovery agreements.
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.