FOI 0228-2024/25 Learner Driver Accidents

Request
How many learner driver accidents have there been in recent years between (05/04/2021) to 05/04/24 

1a) of those incidents, whether the collision was with another vehicle or pedestrian

1b) the gender of the learner drivers

1c) the age of the learner drivers

1d) the time of the day the accident occurred

1e) The location of test centres where accidents occurred on test Please could any response be presented in a PDF format and to this email address?

Extent of Searches to Locate Information
Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information.  

Decision
I am not obliged to provide you with a response to your request pursuant to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.

Section 12(1) applies to your request as the cost of complying with your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of identifying and retrieving any relevant information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Our information retrieval process generally relies on a computer ran report which captures any information recorded upon the surface of a record or within specified fields. Where relevant information is held deeper in the record, or outside of a specified field, a manual assessment is required to retrieve that information.

Information on the type of licence of the driver is held outside a specified field and therefore we would have to manually read all RTCs for the years provided to see if a learner driver was involved, further to this we would have read to find if the location was a test centre. Finally, the time and date of the accident may not be recorded as the time it occurred and may be a time period. This manual read would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, due to the information provided above I am unable to suggest how you may refine your request and still receive the information within the cost threshold.  If you wish to discuss this, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.