Workforce and function data 409/2023

FOI Reference: 409/2023

Request:

Could you please tell me how many police officers there are in your force area and the number of officers in each function, i.e. Response, Neighbourhood, Roads, Investigation?

Response:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, however the following exemptions have been applied to the whole of the information you have requested:

Section 21 – Information reasonably accessible by other means

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.

Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Dyfed-Powys Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:

(a) states that fact,

(b) specifies the exemption in question and

(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Section 21 – Information reasonably accessible by other means:

“(1) Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)—

(a) information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment, and

(b) information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a public authority and does not fall within subsection (2)(b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the information is available from the public authority itself on request, unless the information is made available in accordance with the authority’s publication scheme and any payment required is specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme.”

A Section 21 applies due to the fact that the information requested is already published and can be accessed via the hyperlinks below:

Police workforce open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) – (Please see – ‘Police workforce, England and Wales, 31 March 2023: functions open data tables’)Police workforce, England and Wales: 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) - (Please see – ‘Police workforce, England and Wales: 31 March 2022: data tables’)

It should be noted that owing to the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such matters the information provided may or may not be accurate. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted that for these reasons this Force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.           

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 12/02/24)