Police Offences Statistics

Request Number: FOI/16549

Category: Incident and Crime Statistics - Crime Statistics

Subject: Police Offences Statistics

Request and Answer: 
Your request for information below has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) We can confirm that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) does hold the information you have requested 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 (ICO) 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 Section 12 (1) of the FOIA. This guidance is available on the ICO website at the following link:
ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi/guide-to-managing-an-foi-request/charging-a-fee-and-cost-limits/

Request 1
For the period 3 March 2021 to 29 December 2025, please could you tell me
The number of police officers reported for a criminal offence, with allegations lodged against them. Note: I am aware of anonymity concerns. If the number of officers is <5, please just say <5.

Request 2 
For each officer listed in your answer to question 1, confirm the type of alleged offence (assault, sexual assault, indecent exposure, rape, etc)

Request 3 
For the period 3 March 2021 to 29 December 2025, please could you tell me:
The number of police officers convicted of a crime

Request 4 
For each officer listed in your answer to question 3, the type of offence (assault, sexual assault, rape, etc), the date of the offence and the date of conviction.

Request 5 
The name and rank of each convicted officer and their status with your force at the date of offence and now (i.e still serving, suspended, on limited duties, resigned, sacked, etc)

Clarification requested
1. Do Requests 1 and 2 relate to matters investigated only by PSD, or does it also include matters investigated by PONI? Please note, including matters investigated by PONI will likely take the requests over the statutory cost limits.
2. By ‘reported’ do you mean reported to police/PONI, or do you mean matters which upon investigation by PSNI/PONI have been subject of a report too PPS?

Clarification received 
On point 1, Requests 1 and 2 relate to matters investigated only by the PSD, not PONI.
On point 2, by reported, I mean reported to police only

Answers to Requests 1 - 5 
Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the Police Service of Northern Ireland, 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 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.

The information you seek in Requests 1 and 2 brings this request in full over cost .For the period in question there were approximately 1800 reports made to Professional Standards Department (PSD) concerning alleged misconduct. To determine which related to alleged criminal offences, and then obtain the detail of those offences would require a manual checking of each individual occurrence. At a very conservative estimate of 1 minute per file, this would require approximately 30 hours work to answer requests 1 and 2 grossly exceeding the legislative time frame of 18 hours.

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. 

•  Due to the smaller numbers, answers for Requests 1 and 2 can be provided for 2025 alone. 
• Answers can also be provided within cost for Requests 3-5 due to the existence of a separate register covering convictions.

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.