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Retirement of CC D Jones & appointment of CC L Winward

Our Ref: 04 January 2019 - 1043.2018-19

Request:

Dear North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (NYPCC),

By way of the Freedom of Information Act, please disclose all data held by your office relating to:

1. Retirement of Dave Jones as Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police.

Relevant dates: 6th December, 2017 when a conduct complaint was raised against CC Jones at a PCP meeting held on that date, until the date this information request is logged by NYPCC.

2. Appointment of Lisa Winward as T/Chief Constable, then Chief Constable.

Relevant dates: 28th March, 2018 until the date this information request is logged by NYPCC.

 Refinement received 12/10/18:

Dear North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner,

I write further to your acknowledgement of my request.

It may assist the Civil Disclosure Unit if I refine/reduce my request in the first instance to only providing a schedule of the materials for each part of the request (1. Ex-CC Jones 2. CC Winward) that exist. In so doing, identifying the number and type of documents (email, letter, form, notice etc) that may fall for disclosure (subject to exemptions being applied).

A more detailed request can then follow, which can then, hopefully, be framed so as to avoid the more obvious exemptions.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police.  I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.

 Decision

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

Please see attached email correspondence 1043.2018-19 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 force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.