FOI Property Information (908-2023/24)

Request

Trying to evidence when our property became vacant. It was owned/occupied by [REDACTED INFORMATION], who has now passed away, and was very well known to North Yorkshire Police. [REDACTED INFORMATION] was hospitalised for mental health issues, and unable to attend court for numerous offences where [REDACTED INFORMATION] was sentenced to remain out of the property in hospital and then a home for his own safety. We believe he didn't return to the home address after [REDACTED INFORMATION].

Response

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. 

Decision

North Yorkshire police can neither confirm nor deny that information is held as the duty in s1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 40(5) Personal information

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. Please see the exemption explanations below.

Section 40 is a class based absolute exemption and there is no requirement to consider the public interest in this case.

Consideration on applying this exemption is subject to whether the disclosure of any other information would lead to identifying individuals and place information pertaining to them into the public domain. This constitutes personal data which would, if released, be in breach of the rights provided by the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations; namely the first data protection principle, which states that personal data will be processed lawfully, fairly and transparently.  It is my view that the request runs counter to the three requirements prescribed by law and that there is no lawful basis to provide this information.

This is an absolute exemption, and no public interest test is required.

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

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.