Serious injury following police contact 6/2022

FOI Reference: 6.2022

Request:

How many allegations of serious injuries during or following police contact were made?

- How many of these allegations resulted in a case to answer?

 - Of these, how many resulted in the police officer(s) being found guilty?

- Of those cases which resulted in a guilty verdict, how many resulted in compensation and how much compensation was paid in each case?

For each case, where possible and if it does not push my request over the limit, please share the police contact that resulted in the serious injury and the serious injury.

For each case, please share the gender and race of the victim and perpetrator where known.

Clarification:

• Q1 is referring to complaints to PSD by members of the public.
• I would like to be provided with the following information per calendar year from 2017, up to and including 2020.

Response:

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.

I can confirm that the cost of determining whether any information relative to this request is or isn’t held is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond therefore we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12 (2) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.

Section 12 (2) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit

Section 12(2) states: “…Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit.”

The cost of providing you with the information requested in respect of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the “appropriate level” as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. It is estimated that it would exceed 18 hours (i.e. minimum 160.58 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244

The Freedom of Information Unit has been advised that information requested in relation to your request regarding allegations of serious injury during or following police contact is not held in an easily retrievable format and would exceed the appropriate time limit, i.e. 18 hours, to retrieve.

This is due to the fact that this information isn’t routinely recorded in the terms you have specified ‘serious injury during or following police contact’.  We have been informed by the relevant department that cases which would require review would include complains, conduct and Death or Serious injury matters to establish if these match your criteria.

For the period 1^st January 2017 to 31^st December 2020, we have been advised by the relevant department that there are 1927 records that would require review, each taking at least 5 minutes to review.  The relevant time estimate is detailed below:

Therefore, total time estimate to complete whole request = 160.58 hours

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for the WHOLE of this request under Section 17(5) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is relying on a claim that section 12 or section 14 applies must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that fact.

You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the time shown above to fall within the 18 hours. Should you require any further advice in relation to this matter please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Please note that if deaths during or following police contact is required, this information is published in an annual report each year form the IOPC.  Details can be found here:

https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/our-work/research-and-statistics/annual-deaths-statistics

Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.

This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 18^th February 2022.