FOI 630/25 Unanswered media requests
Date: 04/07/25
Enquiry Reference: 630-25
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request. Below is your request and our response.
I am seeking the following information for each of the calendar years listed below:
- 2023 (1 January 2023 – 31 December 2023)
- 2024 (1 January 2024 – 31 December 2024)
- 2025 to date (1 January 2025 – date of your response)
- The total number of media enquiries received by your force’s press or communications office during each of the above year
- The number of those media enquiries that received no substantive response — meaning the press office did not issue any reply, or only sent a holding response without following up with a proper answer.
For clarity, a holding response is defined for this FOI as an acknowledgement of the enquiry but no further action or reply is provided thereafter.
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, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Our information 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 the number of those media enquiries that didn’t receive a substantive response are not held at the case management system level therefore to determine such detail would require a manual search through all the records.
By way of an explanation the detail requested is not centrally recorded as we introduced our media service level statement (SLS) at the end of 2022. This Media SLS outlines the service the force will provide to journalists and which enquiries will receive what level of response, if any.
The Head of Corporate Communications at the time briefed editors on the Media SLS and for several months after we introduced it, we re-iterated to journalists that we were now working in line with the Media SLS. Due to working in line with the Media SLS (which many other forces in the UK have), there are several enquiries from the media which we do not respond to. We do not log enquiries which we do not respond to. The only way to find this out would be to go back through 1000s of emails which we do not have the resource to do and the cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond. 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.
In addition, the force receives many emails which have been sent to all forces and do not always require a response.
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 part of your 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 more than the time stipulated.
- The current number of staff employed in your press or communications office (full-time and part-time only).
- 2 x Full time and 1 x part time External Corporate Communications Officers*
2 x Corporate Communications Officers who do both internal and external comms*
*Please note this equates to the staff that deal with press enquiries.
Having made enquiries within the Force above is all the information we hold. Please note that all statistical data supplied in relation to Freedom of Information requests is a snapshot of data held at the time the request was received by the Freedom of Information office and is subject to constant change/updates.
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