Misconduct Outcomes 2019-2025

Request Number: FOI/16295

Category: Discipline and Misconduct - Misconduct

Subject: Misconduct Outcomes 2019-2025

Request and Answer: 
Your request for information has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Act we can confirm that the Police Service of Northern Ireland does hold information to which your request relates. However, it is estimated that the cost of complying with your request for information would exceed the “appropriate costs limit” under section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and this will be further explained below. PSNI have followed the Information Commissioner’s Office guidance ‘Requests where the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit’ in relation to this request, which also provides further detail on the application of s 12 (1) of the FOIA. This guidance is available on the ICO website at the following link: Requests where the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit (section 12) | ICO 

Question 
Please provide, for the period from 2019 to the day this request is handled, all police officer misconduct outcomes for your department, including:

- the date when the misconduct was committed
- the date of the misconduct meeting or hearing
- the date when the misconduct outcome was issued
- the rank of the officer
- the allegation
- the sanction
- the proceeding type
- whether the misconduct was proven or not proven
- the outcome
- whether the misconduct happened on duty or off duty
- whether the officer accused of misconduct retired or resigned during investigation
- whether the officer accused of misconduct was suspended during investigation
- for criminal cases:
- whether the officer accused of misconduct was summonsed or charged
- the nature of the criminal allegation
- the court result

Clarification requested:
Should this be limited to misconduct outcomes within formal proceedings i.e. misconduct meeting or should it also include outcomes outside of those proceedings e.g. those which have resulted in management action /NFA without the need for  meeting/hearing to be convened?

Clarification received:
Thank you for your response. To clarify, my request also includes outcomes outside of formal proceedings e.g. those which have resulted in management action/NFA without the need for a meeting or hearing to be convened.

Answers
Section 17 (5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the PSNI, when refusing to provide such information (because the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit) to provide you the applicant with a notice which states that fact.

It is estimated that the cost of complying with your request for information would exceed the “appropriate costs limit” under section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Section 12 of the FOIA allows a public authority to refuse to deal with a request where it estimates that it would exceed the appropriate limit to either comply with the request in its entirety or confirm or deny whether the requested information is held. The estimate must be reasonable in the circumstances of the case. The ‘appropriate limit’ is currently £600 for central government and £450 for all other public authorities including PSNI. The relevant Regulations which define the appropriate limit for section 12 purposes are The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulation 2004 SI 2004 No 3244. These are known as the ‘Fees Regulations’ for brevity.

Regulation 4(3) of the Fees Regulations states that a public authority can take into account the costs it reasonably expects to incur in carrying out the following permitted activities in complying with the request:

(i) determining whether the information is held;

(ii) locating the information, or a document containing it;

(iii) retrieving the information, or a document containing it; and

(iv) extracting the information from a document containing it.

Under those regulations PSNI can calculate the time spent on each of these permitted activities at £25 per hour (thus if the activity(s) takes more than 18 hours PSNI will be in excess of the ‘appropriate limit’).

When a public authority is estimating whether the appropriate limit is likely to be exceeded, it can include the costs of complying with two or more requests if the conditions laid out in Regulation 5 of the Fees Regulations can be satisfied. Those conditions require the requests to be:

• made by one person, or by different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign;
• made for the same or similar information; and
• received by the public authority within any period of 60 consecutive working days.

Regulation 5(2) of the Fees Regulations requires that the requests which are to be aggregated relate “to any extent” to the same or similar information. This is quite a wide test but public authorities should still ensure that the requests meet this requirement.

Enquiries made in relation to your request has identified that retrieval of information to respond to your request would exceed the FOI legislative cost of 18 hours as set by the Secretary of State.

PSNI’s Professional Standards Department (PSD), advised that during the period of this request there were approximately 7000 reports of alleged misconduct/officers involved in reports made to PSD for which there may be an outcome. To obtain the requested details, which are extensive, due to the recording system would necessitate a manual check of each record on an individual basis. At an estimate of 5 minutes per file/officer this would require 580 hours work.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter should be considered as a Refusal Notice, and the request has therefore been closed.

Advice and assistance
You may wish to submit a refined request in order that the cost of complying with your request may be facilitated within the ‘appropriate limit.’ In compliance with Section 16 of the Act, we have considered how your request may be refined to bring it under the appropriate limit. PSNI can advise that the information as outlined below can be provided for matters which proceeded to misconduct meeting or hearing ONLY, during the requested period:

- the date of the misconduct meeting or hearing
- the rank of the officer
- the allegation
- the proceeding type
- whether the misconduct was proven or not proven
- the outcome
- whether the misconduct happened on duty or off duty
- whether the officer accused of misconduct retired or resigned during investigation
- whether the officer accused of misconduct was suspended during investigation

However, submission of a refined request would be treated as a new request, and considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, including consideration of relevant Part II exemptions.