FOI 0607-2024/25- Staff & officer Sick leave

Request:

Q1. Since January 1st 2020, how many police officers and staff working for your force have taken sick leave of any length due to PTSD, anxiety, stress, depression, or any other mental health condition? Please list the figures for police officers and staff separately and also provide the numbers broken up into yearly totals.

Q2. Since January 1st 2020, how many police officers and staff working for your force have taken sick leave of any length due to the suspected symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Please list the figures for police officers and staff separately and also provide the numbers broken up into yearly totals. As the current year is not finished please provide the 2024 total to date.

Q3. Since January 1st 2020, how many police officers and staff working for your force have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Please list the figures for police officers and staff separately and also provide the numbers broken up into yearly totals. As the current year is not finished please provide the 2024 total to date.

Q4. Since January 1st 2020, how many work days have police officers and staff working for your force missed due to the suspected or diagnosed symptoms of PTSD? Please list the figures for police officers and staff separately and also provide the numbers broken up into yearly totals. As the current year is not finished please provide the 2024 total to date.

Response:

Extent of Searches to Locate Information

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

Decision

Your request for information below has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) we can neither confirm nor deny if North Yorkshire Police does or does not hold the information you have requested. It is estimated that the cost of complying with your request for information would exceed the “appropriate costs limit” under Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Section 12 (2) allows a public authority to refuse a request where it estimates that it would exceed to appropriate limit to either comply with the request in its entirety or confirm or deny whether the requested information is held.

Due to the nature of our recording systems; the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. To establish if any information relevant to your request is held by North Yorkshire Police, a manual review of each personnel file for those that took sick leave across the requested time frame would be required, to establish if a person had been diagnosed with PTSD. It is not known whether the information retrieved, if possible, would be an accurate representation or reliable set of data. This manual process would exceed the 18-hour 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, we may be able to provide some information in relation to parts 1 and 2 of your request if you resubmit and omit part 3 and 4.  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.