Following the previous response by Notts Police given to an FOI request (where they stated that they had spent zero hours policing foxhunts as foxhunting is illegal) a more detailed FOI request was sent - heres their reply, which would be hilarious if it wasnt so appalling..... Freedom of Information Section Nottinghamshire Police HQ Sherwood Lodge, Arnold Nottingham NG5 8PP Tel: 101 Ext 800 2507 Fax: 0115 967 2896 25 August 2014 Request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) I write in connection with your request for information, which was received by Nottinghamshire Police on 29/07/2014. Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within Nottinghamshire Police to locate the information you require. Please find below answers to your questions:- RESPONSE Under S 1 (1) (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), I can confirm that Nottinghamshire Police does hold the information you have requested. Could you please disclose the FULL COSTS of policing new style trail and drag hunts (formerly legal fox hunts) in the last financial year 2013 - 2014. Could you please make clear how many police hours were spent policing trail and drag hunting events during the same period. Could you please disclose the largest number of officers present at any trail/drag hunt during the same period. Finally could you please disclose if a police helicopter was used once or more times to police a trail/drag hunt during the same period. Please see overleaf for the response to your above questions. This information is not held in an easily retrievable format. To locate, retrieve and extract the requested information requires a manual search of all Command and Control messages in relation to Hunts. Using a keyword search within the Command and Control system with the word “HUNT” for the period 01/01/2014 to 01/02/2014 an total of 98 messages were returned. Based on the fact there are an average of 8 hunting months per year, it is estimated that there would be approximately 800 messages that would need to be read individually. Each message would need to be read to ascertain if held and if so retrieve and extract any relevant information in relation to costs, hours, number of officers or if the helicopter was required. We estimate that this would take approximately 5 minutes to locate and read each message to retrieve any information which would equate to approximately 67 working for one years worth of data. This takes the request over the cost threshold of 18 working hours and engages Section 12 (1) of the Act. In addition to this some hunts have operated across Force borders such as between Nottingham and Leicestershire or Derbyshire. This may lead to an overlap in data or figures and therefore each Force would need to be contacted and liaised with to ascertain what information related solely to Nottinghamshire Police. This letter constitutes a refusal notice under Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 with Section 12(1) of the act being applied 12. – (1) 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. Should you wish for the Force to continue with your request, a more accurate figure will be provided within a fee’s notice. The cost will need to be paid by you, prior to any further investigation. Please advise if you wish to proceed. Alternatively you are invited to refine your request to bring it within the cost threshold. However, due to the large numbers I am unable to suggest a refinement that would bring the request within the cost threshold. In accordance with the Act, once one part of the request is excess cost the whole request exceeds the cost threshold. Complaints Rights Your attention is drawn to the enclosed review procedure, which details your right of complaint. Nottinghamshire Police, Force Headquarters, Sherwood Lodge, Arnold, Nottinghamshire, NG5 8PP. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in Nottinghamshire Police. Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or contact the Freedom of Information Officer on telephone number 0115 9672507 or e-mail [email protected] quoting the above reference number. Yours sincerely
Posted on: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 12:32:27 +0000
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