11345 - HGV driver assaults
I write in connection with regards to your request received in this office on 3rd October. I note you seek the following:
1) How many incidents of assaults on a HGV driver were recorded in the last 5 years - from 2015 up until 1st October 2019?
a) Please can I have the data broken down year by year, (i.e sequentially 2015, 2016, etc)
2) In each incident please state the type of assault (whether it was verbal or physical)?
3) In each incident please state whether a weapon was used, and if so what it was?
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1 (1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Sec 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon s17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Having contacted the relevant department regarding your request I have been advised that the occupation field is rarely used and to answer your request would require all crimes of assault retrieving and reading manually to ascertain if they are pertinent to your request and is estimated that this would take in excess of the appropriate time stipulated by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Falconer on the 18th Of October 2004, that is, eighteen hours. This falls under the exemption of 'Compliance exceeding the appropriate limit' covered by Section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and as such this work could not be undertaken.
Therefore, please treat this as a refusal notice under S17 of the Freedom of information Act. I am also unable to suggest how to refine your request as for a year alone would take over the time limit specified.
The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.