FOI County Lines Teams (0671-2022/23)

Request

Q1. Do you have any units or teams that are dedicated to safeguarding that works in the context of County Lines ?
Q2. What are the units called (e.g. Child Centred Policing Team; Vulnerability Assessment Team; Child Exploitation Team)?
Q3. Does each Basic Command Unit have all of these teams or only some  [please list The BCUs that do/do not if not present in all - if ‘all force’ please state]?
Q4. How many FTE work in each of the units dedicated to dealing with vulnerability in each BCU?
Q5. How many trained Child Abuse Investigators does each BCU have?
Q6. Do you use any tools such as Vulnerability Assessment/Identification Forms in the context of county lines (i.e. forms that are used by front-line officers or front desk officers to determine, either pre or post arrest, whether safeguarding is more appropriate than arrest/prosecution)
If yes, is this the form produced by the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) or was it produced locally?
Q7. Is there a different assessment tool or process for young people and for adults?
Q8. Is the tool used before or after arrest?
Q9. If the tool is not the NCLCC form, can we please get a copy of the specific tool that you use (for comparison with other forces)?
Q10. Does your force work with a MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) or equivalent?
Q11. If yes, is this force wide or is there a MASH or more than one MASH in each BCU?

Response

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.

Q1. No

Q2 - 5. N/A

Q6. No

Q7 – 9. N/A

Q10. Yes

Q11. NYP have a MASH for North Yorkshire County Council and MAST for City of York Council.

North Yorkshire Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds any other information with regard to an exempt body as the duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply by virtue of the following exemption:

Section 23 – Information Supplied by, or Relating to, Bodies Dealing with Security Matters.

Section 23 is an absolute class-based exemption therefore I am not required to articulate the harm or the public interest in the confirmation or denial of information being held.

Confirming or denying the existence of whether any other information is held would contravene the constrictions laid out within Section 23 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in that this stipulates a generic bar on disclosure of any information applied by, or concerning Security Bodies.  

To give a statement of the reasons why neither confirming nor denying is appropriate in this case would itself involve the disclosure of exempt information, therefore under S.17(4), no explanation can be given. To the extent that S.23 applies, North Yorkshire Police have determined that in all circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exclusion of the duty to neither confirm nor deny outweighs the public interest in confirming whether or not the information is held.

Pursuant to Section 17(4) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

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.