FOI Legal Council Fees paid by NYP (471-2024/25)

Request

Q1. The amount of money that North Yorkshire Police have spent on legal counsel 2023-2024 (external law firms)

Q2. What is the salary of the director of the internal legal service (Xanthe Tait)?

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 some of the located information to you which is correct as of 05 September 2024.

Q1. From 01 March 2023 to 05 September 2024 North Yorkshire Police has spent £82,171.67 on external solicitors and £133,952.90 on legal counsel.

Q2. I am exempting any information to this question pursuant to section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act – Personal Information.

Section 40 – Personal Information

Where an individuals right to a private life may be interfered with, releasing such data would clearly breach the first data protection principle of being ‘fair’ to the data subject. Furthermore, FOIA is a disclosure to the world and an individuals private concerns relating to an employee do not meet the threshold for disclosure under FOIA. Any disclosure of personal information in to the public domain based solely on an individuals private concerns would constitute a disproportionate and unwarranted level of interference to the employees rights and freedoms.

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.