FOI Statistics on FOI refusal / acceptance rates from the force 2020-2022 (0846-2022/23)

Request

I'm writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) to ask that you please disclose to me the statistics on FOI refusal / acceptance rates from your force for the last three years (2020, 2021, and 2022) as percentages, and the reasons for the exemptions given (law enforcement, cost limit, national security etc).

raw data is fine, if that's the manner it's recorded in, but really just a list of the FOIs (without identifiable information attached) and whether they were accepted, refused, and why please.

 

Response

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. We are not required to record such information in a way that can be extracted in line with your request. In order to retrieve the requested information, it would be necessary to manually review all FOI requests to determine which were refused and under what grounds. This would involve reviewing over 3500 records, which 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.