Union staff office 957/2024

FOI Reference: 957/2024

Request:

1. The details of any office accommodation your organisation provides to staff to carry out trade union business. Please include details of:

a) space measured in square feet

b) how much of this space is contained within entirely separate buildings (i.e. occupied solely by staff carrying out trade union business)

c) whether a professional valuation of the market rental value of the space has been sought either in-house or externally, and if so, what the valuation of the space was

d) any charges the council levy for office space given to trade unions.

2. Do you deduct trade union subscriptions for any of your employees via payroll (sometimes known as the "check off" system)? If so, do you charge a fee to the trade unions concerned for providing this service? 

3. With regard to trade union facility time, please provide the total cost of facility time from your pay bill for the financial year 2023/24 and the budget for the current financial year. Please also advise the current number of employees that you fund to be union officials, measured as full time equivalents? (For guidance on definitions please refer to the Government's Transparency Code for local government: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-transparency-code-2015/local-government-transparency-code-2015)

4. Please advise any estimates for other costs met for those staff on trade union facility time apart from salaries - including travel expenses, office supplies, telephone expenses and energy bills.

Clarification sought

Please can you advise the time period you require information for, our most recent records run from 2023/2024

Clarification received

2023/24

 

Response 1a, b & d:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

70ft2 Unison

One person office dedicated to Unison

Rates only applicable as council levy

Response 1c:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, however we are withholding part of that information in relation to question 1c, namely ‘whether a professional valuation of the market rental value of the space has been sought either in-house or externally, and if so, what the valuation of the space was’ as we consider that the following exemption applies to it:

Section 43(2) Commercial Interests

“(2) Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).”

This is a qualified and class based exemption. As a class based exemption, legislators have already accepted the harm in release of this class of information. As a consequence there is no requirement to evidence the harm in disclosing such information. However, as the exemption is a qualified exemption there is a requirement to apply the public interest test, as detailed below.

Public Interest Test:

Considerations Favouring Disclosure:

There is a requirement to provide to the general public a better understanding of how public funds are spent. One of the underlying principles of the Act is the need for openness and transparency. In this case, there is a public interest in disclosing actual rental rates to external parties who may have an interest for other personal benefits.

Considerations Favouring Non-Disclosure:

In this case, to release details would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of Dyfed-Powys Police, as the release of this information may affect the competitiveness of its bargaining position during any future contractual negotiations which would result in the less effective use of public money.

Furthermore, disclosing the amount spent may prohibit Dyfed-Powys Police from being able to negotiate a contract that is of maximum benefit.

Balancing Test:

When balancing the public interest test we have to consider whether the information should be released into the public domain. Advantages and disadvantages of disclosure need to be weighed against each other. In this case there is the use of public funds favouring disclosure which needs to be weighed against the damage that would occur to any ongoing or future tender process and the commercial interests of third parties.

By releasing the requested information the commercial interests of a business and individuals may be compromised including that of Dyfed-Powys Police, along with the relationship that Dyfed-Powys Police has with that company/supplier or persons. Therefore, the factor favouring non-disclosure, which is damage would occur to any future tender process and the commercial interests of third parties outweighs the factor favouring disclosure, which is better understanding of how public funds are spent.

As such, the public interest favours non-disclosure of the information at this time. Therefore in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Response 2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Yes, we deduct Union subscriptions via payroll.

No, we do not charge a fee for this service.

Response 3 & 4:

I can confirm that Dyfed Powys Police does hold the information requested. There is one FTE Unison member of staff employed by Dyfed-Powys Police.

Please be advised, we are exempting the remainder of this request as we believe that the following exemption is relevant:

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:This section has no associated Explanatory Notes

“(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…

2. 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, the information relates to one individual and therefore to release the cost and budget would relate directly to that one individual and 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.

 

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 27/11/2024)