Civil Claims

Our Ref: 04 January 2019 - 1053.2018-19

Request

Original request:

Dear North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner,

Please provide a schedule of civil claims in which either the PCC, or chief constable of North Yorkshire, was claimant, or defendant, AND a senior officer employed by either the PCC, or the force, was either claimant, or defendant. By senior, we set a salary per annum threshold of not below £69,999 and had ‘chief’ in their rank, job title.

Put another way, where the PCC or force has sued one of its own senior officers, or vice versa.

Such schedule to encompass dates between 1st April, 2012 and the date upon which this request is acknowledged.

It should set out, date claim form issued, rank/job title of officer, type of proceedings, name of court at which proceedings issued, court file reference, amount claimed, track allocated, date of hearing (or date claim settled).

For the benefit of the wider world, the request has been framed this way, directed at the PCC, as a result of both the PCC’s office, and the force, sharing resource under the Joint Corporate Services umbrella, the officers of whom are employees of the PCC. In some cases, seconded as contractors to the force.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.  I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.

Please see attached email correspondence 1053.2018-19 EMAIL DATA

Names and personal details within the emails have been redacted pursuant to Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (The Act).

Explanation of Exemptions

I am required by law to identify the relevant parts (the exemptions) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) that I have considered when reaching this decision, and I must also explain why these exemptions apply.

Section 40 – Personal Information

The specific information you have requested is exempt by virtue of Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) because I consider it to be personal information to the people concerned. Information disclosed under the Act is considered released to the world and responses are published on our website.

Section 40(2)(b) is an absolute class based exemption, which does not require a public interest test, but requires the balancing of the legitimate interests of the public against the interests of the individual under the first Data Protection Principle (that of ‘fairness’.) Where an individual can be identified by such data, releasing it would clearly breach the first data protection principle of being ‘fair’ to the data subject.

This exemption applies because the right given under the Act to request official information held by public authorities does not apply to the personal data of third parties where disclosure of that information would not be fair to the individual, and where there is no legitimate public interest in disclosure.

In all the circumstances of the case it has been determined that the duty to the individual under the Data Protection Act 2018 / General Data Protection Regulation, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption from disclosure of personal information held by the force in such instances, outweighs the public interest in disclosure.  In this instance, personal information can only be disclosed to the individual concerned.

Releasing personal details to a person other than the data subject would not only breach the data subject’s Data Protection rights it may also breach the obligations placed on an authority under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in response to your request.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this Office’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.