FOI Road Traffic Blood Samples (0288-2022/23)

Request

Please provide the following information relating to the Road Traffic act 1988 (RTA) blood sample procedure, mainly, but not restricted to Section 4, Section 5, and Section 5a of the RTA.

Please provide information for the below questions (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,) for calendar years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021. Provide information and categorise the information for each year requested, not a total for all years, for example:

2018

Q1.How many blood samples have been requested for toxicology under the RTA? A = 2000 And so on with all questions for each separate year as requested.

Questions:

1. How many blood samples have been requested for toxicology under the RTA?

2. What are the total number of blood samples requested at each location under RTA:

• York Police Custody?
• Harrogate Police Custody?
• Scarborough Police Custody?
• Other location including but not limited to hospital locations?

3. How many sufficient blood samples have been obtained for toxicology under the RTA?

(Sufficient being defined as a blood sample generally over but not limited to 5ml, or a large enough sample the investigating Police Officer has deemed it appropriate to send off for toxicology under RTA)

4. How many blood samples have not been obtained due to a refusal by the suspect under the RTA?

(Refusal being defined as any reason the suspect may or may not give to refuse a blood sample, for example needle phobia, refusal to consent to process etc.)

5. How many blood samples have not been obtained due to failure by the Healthcare Professional (HCP) under RTA?

(Failure being defined as but not limited to: HCP has attempted to draw a blood sample and failed to draw a sufficient sample of blood from the suspect, or HCP has failed to locate a suitable vein to draw a sample of blood from etc.)

6. Out of those failed blood samples how many suspects have no further legal action relating to the suspected RTA offence?

(This includes but not limited to, ‘The DVLA has been notified of a suspected RTA offence, but no evidence has been provided’ warning markers for drug/substance use placed on cars, etc.)

7. What is the average age of the suspects requested to provide a blood sample under the RTA?

(Present information as Mean, Median and Mode, so not to identify suspects under the RTA)

8. Total gender of the suspects requested to provide a blood sample under RTA?

(Present information as for example, Female= 406 Male= 405)

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. Whilst we do record blood and other samples collected and submitted, our data retrieval systems do not allow for further breaking down by the criteria you have requested for example by location of request. To retrieve this information would require the manual reviewing of thousands of records covering the relevant period 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.