FOI 266-24 Grievances
Enquiry Reference: 266 - 24
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request, firstly please accept my apology for the delay. Below is your request and our response.
1) Between 01/01/2019 and 31/12/2023, how many grievances were brought for issues relating (directly or indirectly) to disability, medical conditions, or reasonable adjustments?
- a) 10
2) Of those grievances (at 1 above), how many were from a) Police Officers and b) Police Staff?
- a) 8 Police Officers & 2 Police staff.
3) Of those grievances (at 1 above), what is the breakdown of protected characteristics of claimants, namely gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 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 Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon, Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act requires that I provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) state (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Cleveland Police can confirm it holds any other information pertinent to this request as the duty in Section 1(1) (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of the following exemption:
Section 40(2) Personal Information
Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption which does not require me to evidence the harm that disclosure would cause and does not require consideration of a public interest test in justification of its use.
This exemption is engaged where disclosure of information could lead to the identification of an individual, either from that information alone or combined with other information from within the Police Service or public domain. In this case, releasing a breakdown of the above characteristics, because of the small numbers is highly likely to identify the individuals concerned. Such a disclosure would breach an individual's rights to privacy.
In accordance with Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this notification acts as a Refusal Notice to this section of your request.
4) Between 01/01/2019 and 31/12/2023, how many employment tribunal claims were lodged against your force (or an individual within your force)?
5) Of those employment tribunals (at 4 above), how many were brought for issues relating (directly or indirectly) to disability, medical conditions, or reasonable adjustments?
6) Of those employment tribunals (at 4 above), how many were from a) Police Officers and b) Police Staff?
7) Of those disability related employment tribunals (at 4 above), what is the breakdown of protected characteristics of the claimants namely, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
8) Between 01/01/2019 and 31/12/2023, how many Employment Tribunal claims had the following outcomes:
- Settled out of court.
- As a result of Judicial Mediation
- Judgement in favour of the claimant(s)
- Judgement in favour of the force (or respondent if different)
- Not proceeded with
9) What is the total amount your force has paid in legal fees (to include contracted out legal services, as well as ‘in house’) as a consequence of Employment Tribunal claims between 01/01/2019 and 31/12/2023 (break down in years).
10) What is the total amount of monetary settlement your force has paid after Employment Tribunal claims between 01/01/2019 and 31/12/2023 (break down in years).
11) Between 01/01/2019 and 31/12/2023, what is total amount spent by force for Reasonable Adjustments by force including any Access to Work funding (break down in years).
For questions 4 -11 we would rely on the following:
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 made enquiries within the Force, we do not have an automated way of retrieving this information and would need to undertake a manual scrutiny of case files as well as consultation and validation exercises with the relevant appropriate authorities to locate, extract this data. This data is not stored in a particular fixed field of document, and we cannot rule out having to study numerous documents per case to locate the data which would then need to be verified. 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.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act we have a duty to provide advice and assistance however on this occasion we cannot offer any suggestion on how you could refine this request.
However, as a gesture of goodwill outside of the act we have provided the information collated before it was realised that this would take in excess of the time specified for completion of FOI requests.
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.
If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Decision Maker