FOI 501-24 Armed Response Times

Enquiry Reference:  501 - 24                                                                     

I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request.  Below is your request and our response.

1 (a) For 12 months to the end of April 2024, please outline your force's average response time for a firearms unit / armed response unit, where an emergency call demands an armed police response.

- Please break this data / timings down by each post code area your force serves, eg. SW1, L27, EH11

(b) Additionally, please provide this information for 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23.

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 due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, is not in an easily retrievable format. Our retrieval process generally relies on a computer ran report which captures any information recorded upon the surface of a record. Where relevant information is held deeper in a record a manual assessment is usually required to retrieve that information. In this instance we do not have a firearms marker to retrieve the data and therefore do not know if the call was for an armed response, just that the unit attended. We also do not know at what stage of an incident the unit was asked to attend, therefore, to determine such detail would require a manual search through all the records. This would take more than 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(1) 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.

As a gesture of goodwill outside of the Act we are providing you with the below information which was retrieved before the it was realised that this would take in excess of the time stipulated.

(c) What are your force's target times for armed police responses to these post code locations?

No information held.

2 (a) In the year to April 2024, how many incidents required an armed police response from your force?

(b) Additionally, please provide this information for 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23

With regards to this question 2, I advise you that we consider the Freedom of information Act 2000 Exemption 21 (Information Accessible by other means) is engaged.

Please use the link  below to find what is already published at force level via the Police use of Firearms statistics - Police use of firearms statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The information is published by financial year, ending in March, as requested.

However, current published data only covers the period up to the end of March 2023, not 2024 but the information held is intended for future publication and exempt under Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act.  

The legislation: Section 22 Information intended for future publication  
(1) Information is exempt information if-  
(a) The information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not)  
(b) The information was already held with a view to such publication at the time when the request for information was made, and  
(c) It is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a)  
 
Section 22 is a qualified exemption and as such is subject to a public interest test. This means that Cleveland Police have identified the exemption and have considered whether the public interest in not disclosing the information outweighed the public interest test in disclosing the information.

Although there is a public interest in knowing the details of how many incidents required an armed police response as this leads to greater transparency, Section 22 allows for circumstances when it is reasonable and correct for public authorities to delay the provision of information until it is made generally available through publication.”

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