FOI Federation Officers (01-2024/25)

Request

Q1. How many warranted North Yorkshire police officers are currently working within the North Yorkshire Police Federation Office? Please list their rank, length of service with North Yorkshire Police and how long they have been working within the North Yorkshire Police Federation Office.
Q2. Please confirm who pays the salaries of those officers.
Q3. Does North Yorkshire Police recharge the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) for the salaries of these officers working within the Federation Office? If yes, is this the whole amount or a percentage? Please detail the amount of money spent by North Yorkshire Police to fund the officers working within the North Yorkshire Police Federation Office for calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Q4. If North Yorkshire Police do not recharge PFEW for the salaries then please explain why or if there are any plans to recharge PFEW.
Q5. Does North Yorkshire Police provide any other financial support to the running of the North Yorkshire Police Federation Office i.e. running costs of premises, fuel / mileage, on-call payments, office supplies, etc.? Please provide the total cost and breakdown of costs North Yorkshire Police pay towards the running of the North Yorkshire Police Federation Office for calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Q6. Does North Yorkshire Police recharge PFEW for these costs? If not, please explain why or if there are any plans to recharge PFEW.
Q7. Does the North Yorkshire Police Federation Office have a delegated force budget? If so, what is the amount of that delegated budget for calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023 and who, within the Federation Office, is that delegated responsibility to?
Q8. Who and what is the force line management structure/process for those working within the North Yorkshire Police Federation Office i.e. who authorises annual leave, manages sickness absence and authorises expenses, etc.?
Q9. Please provide the specific section within Police Regulations (or any other agreements) which details the minimum number of police officers which a police force has to allow to work full time within their respective Police Federation Office.

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.

Q1. There are 3 North Yorkshire Police Officers (1 Chief Inspector, 1 Inspector and 1 Police Constable) currently working within the North Yorkshire Police Federation Office. Please note the length of service within the Police and at the federation constitutes Personal Information and is therefore exempt by virtue of Section 40(2) Personal Information. Please see the full exemption explanation below.

Q2. North Yorkshire Police

Q3. North Yorkshire Police do not recharge PFEW. Please see below the amounts spent on officers for the years 2021-2023.

2020 – 2021: £209,130.00

2021 – 2022: £211,827.00

2022 – 2023: £245,355.00

Q4. Full time Federation Branch officials are not deployed operationally but they play a very important role in not only representing officer’s interests and in consulting with their forces on a wide range of matters, for example covering policy, procedure and operational issues. Currently there are no plans to recharge to the PFEW.

Q5. No information held

Q6. N/A

Q7. North Yorkshire Police Federation Office does not have a delegated force budget.

Q8. Annual Leave and Sickness is managed by the General Secretary. Any expenses claimed to North Yorkshire Police would only be relevant to NYP normal policy and claimed as per policy. No expenses could be claimed unless it was related to specific NYP tasks.

Q9. There is nothing in Police Regulations that refers to the ratio of full time Federation officers to the number of police officers. The number is agreed and determined by the Chief Constable.

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.