Officer mental health sickness 167/2022
FOI Reference: 167/2022
Request:
For 2019;
1. The number of individual police officers within your force to have reported mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
2. The number of individual police officers within your force to have had one or more days sick leave because of mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
3. The total number of days police officers have been absent because of sick days due to mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
For 2020;
1. The number of individual police officers within your force to have reported mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
2. The number of individual police officers within your force to have had one or more days sick leave because of mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
3. The total number of days police officers have been absent because of sick days due to mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
For 2021;
1. The number of individual police officers within your force to have reported mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
2. The number of individual police officers within your force to have had one or more days sick leave as a result of mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
3. The total number of days police officers have been absent because of sick days due to mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
Please also provide me the information in Excel format according to the following layout:
|
|
Overall no. of police officers to have reported mental health issues |
Depression |
Anxiety |
PTSD |
Stress |
Etc… |
|
Year (e.g. 2019) |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
|
|
Overall number of police officers to have had one or more sick days due to mental health |
Depression |
Anxiety |
PTSD |
Stress |
|
|
Year (e.g. 2020) |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
|
|
Total number of days police officers have been absent because of sick days due to mental health issues |
Depression |
Anxiety |
PTSD |
Stress |
|
|
Year (e.g. 2021) |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
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 Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information you have requested. However we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12(1) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.
Section 12 (1) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit
Section 12(1) states: “…Section 1 (1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request 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 of 59 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2004/20043244.htm
The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format as it is recorded under a single category of psychological disorders. In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to your request for the time frame stipulated would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and reviewing all psychological disorder records to ascertain if the record relates to the mental health problems outlined in your above request i.e. depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress etc. It has been established that there are a total of 354 records that cover the period of your request (19 – 21). It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single a psychological disorder record in respect of your request (as outlined above). The process outlined results in the below time estimate.
2019 = 108 psychological disorder records@ a minimum of 10 min per record = 18.00 hours
2020 = 109 psychological disorder records@ a minimum of 10 min per record = 18.17 hours
2021 = 137 psychological disorder records@ a minimum of 10 min per record = 22.83 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 59 hours
Please note: Please see the end of the document for information that has been easily retrieved and provided as a gesture of goodwill outside of the FOI Act.
In accordance therefore 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 the Freedom of Information Unit.
Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.
Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act to provide any further information, as a gesture of goodwill, I have provided information, which has been easily retrievable and outlined below. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.
|
Year |
No. of officers with a Psychological Disorder sickness absence |
The total number of days police officers lost due to Psychological Disorders sickness absences |
|
2019 |
85 |
5,645 |
|
2020 |
86 |
6,505 |
|
2021 |
118 |
8,066 |
Additional note: Officers may have had more than one absence during the period attributed to psychological disorders.
Psychological Disorders category within SMS covers sickness absences for the following reasons:
|
P000 Psychological Disorders - Stress, depression, mental health & fatigue syndromes |
|||
|
Acute stress reaction Addiction Alcoholism Alzheimer's disease Anxiety disorders Asthenia Bereavement Bipolar disorder Burn out Chemical dependency Debility Delusional disorder Dementia Depression Drink or drug related absence |
Drug abuse Eating disorders (anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa) Exhaustion Fatigue Fibromyalgia Grief reaction Hypomania Insomnia Lethargy Manic / bipolar depression ME Mood disorder |
Myalgic encephalomyelitis Nervous breakdown Nervous debility Nervous disorder Neurasthenia Neurosis Neuroticism Obsessive-compulsive disorder Panic attacks Panic disorder Paranoia Personal problems Personality disorder
|
Phobias Post natal depression Post traumatic stress reaction Post viral fatigue Post viral syndrome Posttraumatic stress disorder Psychosis PTSD Relationship problems Schizophrenia Self-harm Sleep problems Stress |
Please note: These figures are determined by how the absences have been categorised when recorded on the system. We are aware that absences may have been initially categorised differently, for example under the Miscellaneous but is later known to develop into stress related.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 15/03/22)