FOI Mobile Fingerprinting (0099-2022/23)

Request

I am writing to you because I wish to get information on the use of mobile fingerprinting by the North Yorkshire Police.

After trialing mobile fingerprinting technology in 2018 under the stop and scan scheme, it seems to have been rolled out across England. I want to know if:

(1) North Yorkshire Police use mobile fingerprinting service? And has it ever employed it at any time since fingerprinting services were tested and rolled? If yes, for what period has it ran?

(2) If it has, how many times has it been employed? Please provide a breakup by year, starting from whenever it was first rolled to the present day

(3) Could you also provide a breakup of people on which it was employed by nationality, gender and visa status?

(4) Of the people on which the service was used, how many were subsequently arrested, detained and/or deported? And on what counts? Again, a breakup by year.

(5) I also need access to the latest privacy impact assessment for holding of this information

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. The data you are requesting is not held in a searchable format. For each biometric search conducted we would need to review the data held for that person to ascertain their nationality, gender and visa status. We would then need to determine if the person was arrested, detained or deported.  This process would take a time far exceeding the appropriate limit as stated within the FOI regulations.

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). You may wish to omit questions 3 and 4 from a future request. 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.