Fire service mental health absences (FOI)

Request

I would like Information relating to staff absence of the States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service due to mental health.

I would like figures by financial year for the number of firefighters and civilian employees absent due to mental health related illness within your fire service.

London Fire Brigade responded to a similar request in January 2018 (see disclosure log FOIA3550.1, at the following link:

LFB Freedom of Information request reference number: A3550.1

I would be grateful, if possible, if you could follow the same format for your response to this information request, and trust this is also easier for you.

A further reason for asking for the information in this format is so that I can collate it on a national level more easily.

[Further information: in FOIA response 3550.1, London Fire Brigade gave a table, by financial year (for 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2017/18) with details of number of cases of absence due to mental health (“stress, anxiety and depression related illness”), a column with an unexplained acronym (“LWD”), which I assume is total number of days lost, and contextual columns detailing maximum days available, and average number of staff.]

Please can you update this information with the following:

A

2018/19 data on number of cases, number of days of absence, total days and total average staff, as per the methodology of the previous response.

B

If there is time without exceeding time limits, please also provide data for the financial years 2011/12 through to 2015/16.

C

Please explain / clarify as necessary the “LWD” column, and please provide any further context or explanation on methodology that you deem helpful / necessary.

Response

Please note that the financial year in Jersey runs from 1st January to 31st December.

A

Information held on staff for the period July 2018 to August 2019 is as follows.

Numbers less than ten have been shown as <10. Disclosure control has been applied to the data in order to protect the identity of individuals in accordance with Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Please see further information provided in response to two previous Freedom of Information requests for the period 2013 to June 2018.

Sick leave for the Emergency Service (FOI)

Stress related sickness in the Emergency Services (FOI)

B

The requested information, going back to 2013, has been provided in the above links to previous Freedom of Information responses.

It is estimated that to review and collate information prior to that period would exceed the 12.5 hour limit allowed under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Regulations.

C

The Government of Jersey does not hold information in relation to the information provided by the London Fire Brigade.

Article applied

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the

request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Article 25 Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.