FOI Essential Vehicle User (1138-2023/24)

Request

Please can you confirm the amount paid as an "Essential (Vehicle) User"
payment to eligible Officers/Staff and provide a copy of the relevant Policy Document, also list of eligible Posts if not covered within the Policy document.

I am seeking information in the form of, for example;

Essential User Payment is £104/month

Mileage Policy - Document attached

Eligible Roles listed in the document

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.

The Police handbook states, an essential user is an employee for whom it is deemed essential that they have a car at their disposal whenever required. Such an employee shall be paid the following allowances:

Engine Size	451-999cc	1000-1199cc	1200-1450cc
Lump Sum (Per year)	£846.00	£963.00	£1,239.00
Mileage Rates
Up to 8500 miles	36.9p	40.9p	45p
Over 8500 miles	13p	14.4p	16.4p
Petrol Element	9.406p	10.366p	11.288p
Amount of VAT	1.400p	1.543p	1.681p

There is no policy for the essential car user payment so there is no information held in relting to this part of your request.

The roles that North Yorkshire Police are currently paying an essential car user payment to are exempt pursuant to Section 40(2) of the Act. Whether a person receives such a payment is considered to be their personal information.

Section 40 – 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 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) 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.