FOI Officer Sickness (0854-2024/25)

Request
Q1. How many police officers have taken sick leave during the period 01/01/2023-31/12/2023?

Q2. How many of those sickness absences were attributed to mental health?

Q3. For police officers taking mental health related sickness within this period what were the mental health conditions cited? 

Q4. How many serving police officers committed suicide between the period of 01/01/2023-31/01/2024? 

Q5. Could data pertaining to sickness absence, conditions and suicide be sectioned into the demographics of age, gender and rank? 

Q6. What Mental Health Services are made available for police officers experiencing poor mental health within this organisation?

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 following information to you.

Q1. The number of police officers taking sick leave at any time in the period 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023 is 2141.

Q2 & 3. Between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023 there have been 261 police officers that have taken sick leave for mental health reasons which include the following.

• Anxiety
• Bereavement anxiety
• Depression
• Other mental disorders
• Other stress
• Post traumatic stress
• Stress
• Work related stress

Q4. Officer suicide is not recorded, the cause of death is recorded by the coroner and therefore unless the cause of death was identified by family members then we would not hold this information.

Q5. Please see the tables below showing the absence reason relating to mental health conditions, gender and age range of officers taking sick leave. As per our response to Question 4, officer suicide is not recorded. I have exempted disclosure of the rank of individuals and have disassociated the tables and removed certain details pursuant to Section 40(2) – Personal Information. This is to refrain from individual officers becoming identifiable and consequently the personal details of any persons involved being disclosed. Please see exemption explanation below.

*Based on the Home Office Standard Age Groups

Please note that:

• Although the sickness absence falls within the timeframe specified the sickness absence start/end date may fall outside the timeframe specified.
• The data provided above is based on the number of sickness absences and not the number of officers taking sick leave, therefore this may include officers who have had more than one absence within the timeframe specified.

Q6. All Police Officers have access to the Health and Wellbeing Counsellors who are all trained Therapists. They can self-refer or be referred by their Line Manager, sessions are not limited and concerns/issues do not have to be work related.

Exemption Explanation

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire 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.

Section 40(2) – Personal Information

Where an individual can be identified by such data, releasing it would clearly breach the first data protection principle of being ‘fair’ to the data subject.

Section 40(2) is an absolute class based exemption, which does not require a public interest test, but requires the balancing of the legitimate interests of the public against the interests of the individual under the first Data Protection Principle; in that processing of personal data must be lawful and fair (DPA 2018 35(1), EUGDPR Article 5(1)).

This exemption applies because the right given under the FOI Act to request official information held by public authorities does not apply to the personal data of third parties where disclosure of that information would not be fair to the individual, and where there is no legitimate public interest in disclosure.

In all the circumstances of the case it has been determined that the duty to the individual under the Data Protection Act 2018 & EU General Data Protection Regulations, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption from disclosure of personal information held by the force in such instances, outweighs the public interest in disclosure.  In this instance, personal information can only be disclosed to the individual concerned. 

Releasing personal details to a person other than the data subject would not only breach the data subject’s Data Protection rights it may also breach the obligations placed on an authority under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a refusal notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to your request.

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.