Information released in July 2011
Request re: Officers away from the Force
Response:
Please find the requested information in the below tables for officers on secondment, central service, maternity/adoption leave and career breaks broken down quarterly. As per your clarification, I have included figures for police officers only and have not included police staff.
Unfortunately, officers on SPC training is recorded as an inclusive figure of total police officers and to get separate figures a manual trawl of training records would be required which would take an excessive amount of time to complete. This part of your request is therefore exempt under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, excessive cost of compliance.
Further, the format used to record this information has changed through the years on a number of occasions. This means that not all of the information requested has been recorded for each quarter of each year. I have marked where information is not held by stating, "not recorded" and, unfortunately, to obtain these details again a manual trawl of records would be required which would take an excessive amount of time to complete. This part of your request is therefore exempt under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, excessive cost of compliance.
Please note that I have not included officers on temporary service to the SPSA or the SCDEA in the figures for secondments, although please come back to me if you require these figures.
Central Service / Secondment / Maternity/Adoption Leave / Career Break2007 - Quarter 1 / 55 / 31 / Not recorded / Not recorded
2007 - Quarter 2 / 13 / 40 / Not recorded / Not recorded
2007 - Quarter 3 / 14 / 43 / Not recorded / Not recorded
2007 - Quarter 4 / 51 / 42 / Not recorded / Not recorded
2008 - Quarter 1 / 33 / 18 / 9 / 32
2008 - Quarter 2 / 40 / 19 / 18 / 29
2008 - Quarter 3 / 40 / 19 / 18 / 36
2008 - Quarter 4 / 40 / 36 / 18 / 29
2009 - Quarter 1 / 35 / 46 / 16 / 32
2009 - Quarter 2 / 35 / 38 / 22 / 31
2009 - Quarter 3 / 38 / 39 / 20 / 29
2009 - Quarter 4 / 38 / 36 / 20 / 28
2010 - Quarter 1 / 41 / 36 / 25 / 26
2010 - Quarter 2 / 39 / 35 / 33 / 24
2010 - Quarter 3 / 42 / 31 / 33 / 33
2010 - Quarter 4 / 43 / 31 / 39 / 22
Unfortunately long-term sick leave is not reported quarterly and is reported on an annual basis. In order to gather the required quarterly information, a manual trawl of absence records would be required which would take an excessive amount of time to complete. This part of your request is therefore exempt under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, excessive cost of compliance.
To be of some assistance however, I have included the annual figures. It should be noted that these figures are for the number of long-term absences and not the number of officers so the number of officers may be lower. For example if an officer were off for over 28 days on 2 separate occasions during that year, it would be counted as 2 absences.
Long term absences2006/2007 / 338
2007/2008 / 339
2008/2009 / 289
2009/2010 / 304
Request re: Lifestyle Guides
Response:
Lifestyle guides for Lothian and Borders police officers/staff are provided through the link to a comprehensive web portal provided by AXA -PPP our Employee Assistance Programme: http://www.axappphealthcare.co.uk/personal/medical-health-centres/nutrition-and-fitness-information.
I have also attached the following link to our dignity at work policy, which covers the issues of appropriate language and conduct. http://www.lbp.police.uk/freedom-of-information/pl_policies.asp
Request re: Procurement and Purchasing
Response: (ALSO SEE ATTACHMENTS)
Please find attached the relevant information that falls under your request. Please note that two pages from these documents have been removed. This is because they contain information relating to specific departments within the force relating to specific operational provision. This information is considered exempt under section 35 (1) (a) and (b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002: information is exempt information if its disclosure under this act would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the prevention or detection of crime and the apprehension of offenders (law enforcement).
Further some information has been blacked out; this is where reference is made to specific persons or decisions regarding other Forces. This information is exempt under Section 38 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002: personal information.
Request re: Crime Statistics
Response: (ALSO SEE ATTACHMENT)
Unfortunately, I am unable to answer the questions you have asked to the level of detail you require. Our Force Communication Centre (FCC) uses two systems to log call information; VANTAGE, which records basic information namely the telephone number used to call the Police, and caller details if these are provided (i.e. not an anonymous call); and STORM, the Force’s incident recording system. The latter is used to note the details provided by the caller, command and control the resources deployed (if required) and note the subsequent action taken in relation to the incident. The FCC is not therefore responsible for ‘logging’ crimes; it will be the Officers/staff who are allocated to attend, or who contact the complainer for further details who will determine if a crime has been committed and complete the necessary report (on a different crime recording system) having undertaken enquiries.
I note you refer to the practice of ‘screening out’ crimes. Lothian and Borders Police do not operate such a policy. Instead, an assessment is made of all crime reports to determine whether further investigation is possible, feasible or necessary and is based on the following criteria contained in force guidance:
A Crime Report Form is suitable for No Further Enquiry in the following circumstances:
Minor crime
no eye witnesses
No description of suspect or vehicle
No exceedingly high value or property stolen or damaged
No follow-up visit required
Crime appears unsolvable at this stage
Once a crime has been marked No Further Enquiry it is logged in the enquiries log, which, unfortunately, does not have a searchable field. The only way in which this information is available is by a manual search; which given the number of enquiries would be impossible within a reasonable time scale: section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 therefore applies: Excessive cost of Compliance.
Lothian and Borders Police does not record the average, longest or shortest time to contact a complainer. Therefore Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 applies; information not held. The Force does grade calls depending on their urgency as follows:
Grade 1 (Emergency) - calls that require immediate attendance regardless of other matters.
For example ‘999’ and other calls which indicate serious and immediate threat to life, personal safety or property, resulting from an ongoing/imminent serious crime or road accidents where someone has been injured.
Grade 2 (High Priority) - Calls that require immediate attendance, but where commitments to Grade 1 and existing Grade 2 calls mean it is not possible to attend immediately.
For example a less serious crime being committed where there is not an immediate threat to life or personal safety
Grade 3 (Standard Priority) - Calls that will be attended as soon as possible with due regard to Grade 1 and 2 call demand.
An example would be where a crime is no longer in progress and there is no longer a serious and immediate threat to life, personal safety or property.
Grade 4 (Discretionary Priority) - Calls that may be resolved by telephone reporting or attended by officers at a time mutually convenient to both the caller and police.
An example would be where incidents are no longer in progress and where the enquiry would not be affected by non-attendance or attendance at a later time by the police.
Grade 5 (Resolution without Deployment) - Calls that can be resolved by the person taking the call or by referral to another appropriate agency providing advice, or by taking a report over the telephone, or by advising the caller that the best course is to go to a police station to progress the matter face to face with a member of police staff. Police will not attend.
Statistics on calls and incidents are contained within the Force’s Annual Report, which may also be of interest to you. I have attached the full report to this email (statistics contained on page 21).
Similarly to your question 4, and although a number of reports will be taken or resolved over the phone, this is not centrally recorded. Rather, each crime report or incident would have to be read to obtain this information. As a result, Section 12 of the Act will again apply to your questions re the number of times the complainer was contacted by phone instead of being visited in person by an officer, and that regarding the number of calls resulting in no further action being taken.
Request re: Unlawful Arrest and Detention in 2009/10 and 2010/11
Request re: Unlawful arrests and detention in 2009/10 and 2010/11
Response:
In the two years you are interested in, Lothian And Borders Police has dealt with 4 claims for unlawful arrest/detention, all were repudiated and are now considered closed without any payments made to the claimants.
I note you have requested this information to be broken down into the separate financial years. However, due to the low number of claims we have had, we have been unable to do this on this occasion as it may lead to the identification of individuals. The release of personal information is exempt by virtue of Section 38 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Request re: Young people on ViSOR
Response:
It should be noted that the following statistical information has been extracted from the VISOR database, based on nominals currently living in the Lothian and Borders Police area. It does not include nominals that may have been within the specified age brackets during the requested period but have now moved to another area. The dates used for the retrieval of the statistics were 16 June on 2009, 2010 and 2011.
2009
Under 10 years - 0
10 to 16 years of age - 0
16 to18 years of age - 18
2010
Under 10 years - 0
10 to 16 years of age - 0
16 to18 years of age - 6
2011
Under 10 years - 0
10 to 16 years of age - 0
16 to18 years of age - 0
Although Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements in England and Wales incorporate Registered Sex Offenders, Restricted Patients, Violent offenders and other potentially dangerous persons who present a significant risk of harm to members of the public,the Scottish Government instructed that on the introduction of MAPPA to Scotland on 2nd April 2007, only Registered Sex Offenders andRestricted Patients would besubject to management under the arrangements. As such ‘Violent’ and potentially dangerous offenders have yet to be introduced to MAPPA in Scotland and are not currently routinely recorded or managed through ViSOR.
Request re: Sexual Grooming
Response:
I searched our crime system for offences recorded under the code 018014 ‘grooming of children for the purposes of sexual offences’, which returned the following number of people charged in regards to this crime:
2006 – 7
2007 – 2
2008 – 4
2009 – 0
2010 – 5
I note you also request what subsequent action was taken. In all these cases a report was submitted to the Procurator Fiscal for consideration. Therefore, the decision whether to proceed to trial or take no proceedings would have been taken by this authority and not Lothian and Borders Police and, as a result, the outcome of these cases is not held by the Force. Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 therefore applies. You may wish to submit a request to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to request the outcome of cases involving child grooming. The FOI contact address is available here: http://www.crownoffice.gov.uk/FOI/PubScheme
Request re: Apple products and phones
Response:
I contacted the relevant department in Force which provided the following answers:
· iPads- No iPads have been purchased in any Financial Year n.b. these only went on sale in 2010
· iPad2s- No iPad 2s have been purchased in any Financial Year n.b. these only went on sale in 2011
· iPhone 4- No iPhone 4s have been purchased in any Financial Year n.b. these only went on sale in 2010
· High spec computers such as Alienware, Macbooks, macbook pro's- None
How many of the ipad 2s were issued to staff to replace ipad ones?N/A
How many of the iphone 4s were issued to staff to replace previous models of the iphone, and how many to replace other smart phones? N/A
As a result of the nil return, Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, Information not Held, applies to all questions relating to the above.
In relation to ‘all other mobile phones’, I am unfortunately unable to provide the number of staff who has been supplied with this. Lothian and Borders Police issues such telephony equipment on a role-based (rather than specific person) basis, with individual Divisions responsible for procuring it as and when it is required. As a result there is no central register kept over the period. To explain further, if an Officer moves on from the role which required him/her to be provided with a phone, he will pass it to his successor and so on. As a result, in order to provide the information you have requested, I would have to contact every Division/department in Force to ascertain the number of roles which would have used a mobile, identify the number of officers/staff who had carried out the role in the 5 years you refer to, and collate the results. To do this to a reliable standard would involve a significant investment of time and place your request outwith the cost limit of the Act. Section 12, Excessive Cost of Compliance, would therefore result.