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Request
Original request (0622.2024-25)
Q1. List of all Police Vehicles which retired from your force between January 2014 and September 2024. Please provide Make/Model/Date of Retirement/Registration Plate or VIN/Lenght of Service/Type of Use.
Refined request (0755.2024-25)
What information you can provide? I am interested in current and going towards older vehicles. So we can fit in time and cost limits.
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. Please see attached document titled ‘0755.2024-25 – Response Attachment’ showing a list of fleet vehicles retired between 1 January 2014 and 30 September 2024, which includes the date of retirement (oldest to most recent), make, model, and business use (where recorded). I am exempting the Vehicle Registration Numbers (VRNs) pursuant to Sections 31 and 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) and covert vehicles, Armed Response Vehicles (ARV) and specialist vehicles pursuant to Section 31 of the Act. Please see exemption explanation below.
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 31 – Law Enforcement
Section 31 is a prejudice-based qualified exemption and there is a requirement to articulate the harm as well as carrying out a public interest test.
Evidence of Harm
As you may be aware, disclosure under FOIA is a release to the public at large. Whilst not questioning the motives of the applicant, releasing any information held regarding a full list of VRNs and details of covert/ARV/specialist vehicles, whether current or not, could be of intelligence value to a person or persons with criminal or malicious intent. This would be to the detriment of providing an efficient policing service and a failure in providing a duty of care to all members of the public.
This can then benefit them as:
Although it is seen that some policing procedures should be transparent and that the requested information may appear harmless, it is still readily available data held within the public domain that can be accessed and used by known criminals/terrorists. As the threat from terrorism cannot be ignored, it is generally recognised that the international security landscape is increasingly complex and unpredictable. The Police are there to support the public and deliver effective law enforcement, therefore any data that would compromise policing operations would be detrimental in providing an efficient policing service and a failure in providing a duty of care to all members of the public.
There is also a duty of care to individuals when police have to attend addresses. In providing a full list of fleet vehicles/VRNs, via FOI requests, the public then have access through open forums, such as Google, to look up VRNs, if parked outside an individual’s home, and see whether it is associated to the police, which then allows them to know that the individual is liaising with the police. This can put their safety at risk, especially if they are a victim and neighbours / offenders are not aware that they are liaising with police.
Information that undermines the operational integrity of the police will adversely affect public safety and have a negative impact on both national security and law enforcement. Therefore, it has been determined that the release of this information would not be in the public interest.
Factors favouring disclosure under Section 31
Some VRNs are already within the public domain, however not in a collective format.
Information would ensure transparency and accountability and enable the public to see what tactics are deployed by the Police Service to tackle/assist in fighting crime.
Factors against disclosure under Section 31
It has been recorded that FOIA releases are monitored by criminals and terrorists and so releasing information held relating to full lists of VRNs and covert/ARV/specialist vehicles in a collective format would undermine and compromise law enforcement and it would also hinder any local, regional or national operations.
It can be argued that there are significant risks associated with providing information in relation to any aspects that can assist criminal planning and that any nation's security arrangements, by releasing the information, may reveal the relative vulnerability of what we may be trying to protect.
The Police Service would not wish to reveal resource information that would undermine the law enforcement operations and would impact on police resources, as more crime would be committed because criminals/terrorists would know which forces had less/more capability. This in turn would place the public at a greater risk and a fear of crime would be realised, especially for more vulnerable areas.
There is less value to the public in knowing a retired list of vehicles as this does not represent an accurate reflection of the tactics deployed by the Police Service at the time of the request.
Balance test
Disclosing information that would allow the identification of all vehicles may reveal what resources are available for a given role and this information could enable police strength to be determined and circumvented by those intent on committing crime. The release of this information could therefore provide a tactical advantage to offenders which would negatively impact on public safety and undermine the policing purpose.
Disclosing the details of covert vehicles would provide sufficient information to those involved in criminal activity of the capabilities available to the force when carrying out covert activities in certain areas. This could result in them taking steps to evade detection and to destroy evidence if they believe that their movements are being monitored. This could also lead to vehicles and officers being identified which would render their covert capabilities useless.
Whilst there is a public interest in the transparency of policing resources and providing assurance that the police service is appropriately prepared and effectively engaging with the threat posed by various groups or individuals, there is a very strong public interest in safeguarding the integrity of police resources and operations in the highly sensitive areas such as crime prevention, public disorder and terrorism prevention.
As much as there is public interest in knowing that policing activity is appropriate and balanced this will only be overridden in exceptional circumstances. It is our opinion that there is less value to the public in knowing a retired list of vehicles as this does not represent an accurate reflection of the tactics deployed by the Police Service at the time of the request.
Section 40 – Personal Information
I am exempting the VRNs of retired vehicles pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).
Decommissioned police vehicles are sold at public auction and will re-appear in domestic use, usually driven by members of the public. Once an individual owns a vehicle the VRN becomes their personal data.
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.