Cost of external police reports (FOI)

Request

I would like to request the full costs of ALL reports done by outside Police forces since 2004 for example Devon and Cornwall / Avon and Somerset / Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) / Guernsey and any others.

Response

The request is refused on the basis that to locate, retrieve and extract all the information requested over the past 13 years, would exceed the cost limit provisions allowed under Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 and the 12.5 hours maximum allowed under regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014.

The States Police have noted from previous correspondence that requests of this nature have generally centred on the police complaints procedure. With this in mind this request has been interpreted as referring to complaint investigation reports which fall within the remit of the Police (Complaints and Discipline) (Jersey) Law 1999 and specifically the appointment of officers from forces other than the States of Jersey Police to conduct an investigation. Should this not be the case please let us know.

The tangible costs of policing are usually calculated using hours and salaries per incident, travel and accommodation costs. These are of course dependent on the extent of the investigation, Force involved, number of officers and length of the investigation. There are numerous additional challenges when attempting to calculate the cost for police expenditure on complaint investigations. Some complaint investigations are initiated by the Minister for Community and Constitutional Affairs (formerly Home Affairs), who effectively act as the appropriate authority, deciding the remit, terms and conditions of the investigation and ensuring financial control. The States of Jersey Police have little involvement in such investigations and do not hold information in respect of the cost of any such investigations.

Following an initial assessment of the nature of the complaint, type of investigation and projected timescale, investigation costs can be met from a range of budgets or cost centres and in some cases not allocated an individual cost code. For this reason it is not possible to extract sufficient details from the Professional Standards Department records to ascertain the cost centre allocated some complaint investigations. This is compounded in that some forces agree to charge only for travel and accommodation and not for officer’s time. Furthermore due to the requirements of an independent investigation, if initiated by the Minister or at the request of the Jersey Police Complaints Authority, the States of Jersey Police may not maintain financial oversight. Such investigations are not recorded and managed via normal States of Jersey Police Professional Standards procedures. In short, depending on the nature of some complaints the Professional Standards Department may have no record whatsoever (the most recent Police Service of Northern Ireland Investigation for example). The difficulty in responding to the request is compounded as some legal fees can be accounted for separately and are not broken down into a case by case basis.

Without reviewing all complaints during the period specified it is not possible to provide any real clarity with which to cross check financial records. In line with the Management of Police Information some financial data is retained for a limited period as such some of the data may no longer be available.

Exemption(s) and / or refusal(s) 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.