Warranted officers 359/2024
FOI Reference: 359/2024
Request:
- How many warranted Dyfed-Powys police officers are currently working within the Dyfed-Powys Police Federation Office? Please list their rank, length of service with Dyfed-Powys Police and how long they have been working within the Dyfed-Powys Police Federation Office.
- Please confirm who pays the salaries of those officers.
- Does Dyfed-Powys Police recharge the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) for the salaries of these officers working within the Federation Office? If yes, is this the whole amount or a percentage? Please detail the amount of money spent by Dyfed-Powys Police to fund the officers working within the Dyfed-Powys Police Federation Office for calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023.
- If Dyfed-Powys Police do not recharge PFEW for the salaries then please explain why or if there are any plans to recharge PFEW.
- Does Dyfed-Powys Police provide any other financial support to the running of the Dyfed-Powys Police Federation Office i.e. running costs of premises, fuel / mileage, on-call payments, office supplies, etc.? Please provide the total cost and breakdown of costs Dyfed-Powys Police pay towards the running of the Dyfed-Powys Police Federation Office for calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023.
- Does Dyfed-Powys Police recharge PFEW for these costs? If not, please explain why or if there are any plans to recharge PFEW.
- Does the Dyfed-Powys Police Federation Office have a delegated force budget? If so, what is the amount of that delegated budget for calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023 and who, within the Federation Office, is that delegated responsibility to?
- Who and what is the force line management structure/process for those working within the Dyfed-Powys Police Federation Office i.e. who authorises annual leave, manages sickness absence and authorises expenses, etc.?
- Please provide the specific section within Police Regulations (or any other agreements) which details the minimum number of police officers which a police force has to allow to work full time within their respective Police Federation Office.
Response:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested; however we are exempting part of the information as we believe that the following exemption is relevant:
Section 40(2) Personal Information
Section 40(2) is a class-based absolute exemption. This means that the legislators when writing the legislation considered that the release of such information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would cause harm to the public authority or individual concerned.
There is therefore no requirement to carry out a HARM Test in respect of such information.
There is also no requirement to carry out a Public Interest Test.
Section 40(2) Personal Information:
Section 40(2) applies to third party personal data and is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 if disclosure, in relation to data subject to law enforcement processing, would breach any of the data protection principles contained within Part 3 - Chapter 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018. Under Section 34 within Chapter 2 “The Controller in relation to personal data is responsible for and must be able to demonstrate, compliance with” Chapter 2. Such information would not be released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 unless there is a strong public interest. One of the main differences between the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 2018 is that any information released under FOI is released into the public domain, not just the individual requesting the information and disclosure under the Act must be made with that in mind. As such, any release that identifies an individual through releasing their personal data, even third party personal data is exempt.
Personal data is defined under Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 as:
“(2) ‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual (subject to subsection (14)(c)).
(3) ‘Identifiable living individual’ means a living individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—
(a) An identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or
(b) One or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individual.”
All members of the public including those employed by the force have an intrinsic right to privacy and these rights are protected by virtue of the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and a public authority must not interfere with that right. Any release of the information subject to the exemption is likely to compromise those rights.
Data Protection Act 2018
Part 3 – Law Enforcement – Chapter 2 Principles Section 35
The first data protection principle:
“(1) The first data protection principle is that the processing of personal data for any of the law enforcement purposes must be lawful and fair.”
General Data Protection Regulation
Article 5 of the GDPR – ‘Principles relating to processing of personal data’ provides:
“1. ‘Personal data’ shall be
(a) Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency);
(b) Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest…
- The controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate compliance with, paragraph 1 (‘accountability’).”
Dyfed-Powys Police would not want to disclose any information that could potentially identify an individual. In this particular case, to release the rank, length of service and length of secondment in a correlated table, especially taking into consideration the very low number of officers, could lead to the identification of the individuals involved and to release such information would be a direct breach of Data Protection legislation. Therefore as a consequence I am satisfied that Section 40(2) Personal Information exemption is applicable to the release of the information.
The Section 40 exemption is a class-based exemption. This means that the legislators when writing the legislation considered that the release of such information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would cause harm to the public authority or individual concerned. There is therefore no requirement to carry out a HARM Test in respect of such information.
The Section 40 exemption is in part qualified and in part absolute, in the present case it would be absolute as to release the information would breach Data Protection legislation and therefore there is no requirement to carry out a public interest test.
Response 1:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
|
Rank |
Length of Service |
Length of time in elected position |
|
Chief Inspector |
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied |
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied |
|
Sergeant |
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied |
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied |
|
Constable |
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied |
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied |
Please note: The police officers listed above are not "seconded" to the National Board of PFEW, instead they are elected.
Response 2:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Dyfed-Powys Police
Response 3:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Dyfed-Powys Police does not recharge the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) for the salaries of these officers working within the Federation Office.
|
Year |
Total Amount Spent |
|
2021 |
£160,490 |
|
2022 |
£164,769 |
|
2023 |
£292,007 |
Response 4 & 6:
Questions 4 & 6 are not valid requests for Information under the terms of the legislation. They are all framed in a conditional context, as in “explain why”, which is a general question. And as you may know, s84 of FOIA relates to recorded information held by a public authority and that it does not extend to providing explanations unless the answers are already held in a recorded form.
"Information is defined in section 84 of the Act as 'information recorded in any form'. The Act therefore only extends to requests for recorded information. It does not require public authorities to answer questions generally; only if they already hold the answers in recorded form. The Act does not extend to requests for information about policies or their implementation, or the merits or demerits of any proposal or action - unless, of course, the answer to any such request is already held in recorded form." (Day vs ICO & DWP – EA/2006/0069 Final Decision)
These requests does not constitute a valid request under section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act, therefore for the reasons outlined above; the request cannot be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Section 8 of the Act provides:
(1) In this Act any reference to a "request for information" is a reference to such a request which-
(a) is in writing,
(b) states the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence, and
(c) describes the information requested.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(a), a request is to be treated as made in writing where the text of the request-
(a) is transmitted by electronic means,
(b) is received in legible form, and
(c) is capable of being used for subsequent reference.
A request under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) is required by statute to describe the information requested, in terms of recorded information held by Dyfed-Powys Police, as defined by Section 8(1)(c).
The Freedom of Information Act provides the right of access to recorded information only. It does not require a public authority to answer direct or hypothetical questions or provide comment or opinion, unless recorded information exists which could itself answer such questions.
It is apparent from the request that information is being requested in relation to future predictions and therefore does not relate to information which is already recorded.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (2000) this response represents a Refusal Notice for this part of your request under Section 8(1)(c) of the Act.
Response 5:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Yes, breakdown as follows:
|
Year |
Item |
Cost |
|
2021 |
Premises |
£6598 |
|
|
Fleet |
£1783 |
|
|
Office Costs |
£1263 |
|
2022 |
Premises |
£7472 |
|
|
Fleet |
£3631 |
|
|
Conference |
£1260 |
|
2023 |
Premises |
£8277 |
|
|
Fleet |
£2623 |
|
|
Office |
£175 |
Response 7:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Yes. Budget was:
|
Year |
Budget |
|
2021 |
£170,198 |
|
2022 |
£171212 |
|
2023 |
£183,368 |
The budget is signed off by the Chair of the Dyfed-Powys Police Federation.
Response 8:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
The Chief Constable.
Response 9:
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.
Police Federation Regulations state there has to be a Branch Chair, Branch Secretary and Branch Treasurer elected. The Branch constitution dictates that these roles are full time which is agreed by the Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police.
It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 19/06/2024)