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RESOURCES DIRECTORATE
Information Compliance & Disclosure Section
Police Headquarters, Saunders Lane, Hutton, Preston PR4 5SB
Tel: 01772 413327 Fax: 01772 412123 Email:
B McKenzie
Via www.whatdotheyknow.com
Via email:
02 November 2011
Dear B McKenzie,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION APPLICATION REFERENCE NO: 3469/11
Thank you for your request for information received by Lancashire Constabulary on the 7th October 2011, which was as follows:-
Please could you provide all statistical data you hold, in relation to fractures in babies, going back from 2011 to whatever date is reasonable.
I am particularly interested in:
· The Local Authority Area
· Name of the Hospital
· Whether the Fractures had an organic explanation. (If so what was the cause e.g. Brittle bones, Vitamin D deficiency etc)
· Whether the Fractures were recorded as non accidental.
· Whether a criminal trial ensued.
· Whether the child was adopted.
I appreciate that it may not be possible to provide all the above listed information however I would be grateful to receive whatever information you have available and signposting towards other organisations who may hold the relevant data.
Your request has now been considered and the information you are seeking cannot be provided at this stage.
I have liaised with the force’s Public Protection Unit in respect of this enquiry, and have been advised that the Vulnerable Persons database would hold some information relevant to your enquiry. However, we are very unlikely to hold all of the details you are seeking on the database.
Further to this, I have been advised that there is no reliable means by which to search the database for the specific incidents which would be relevant to your enquiry. Unfortunately, the only way to extract the data you have requested would be for a member of staff to manually read through every potentially relevant log entry on the Vulnerable Persons database and keep a note of those which involved a fracture injury to a baby. In the calendar year of 2010 alone there were over 11,500 vulnerable child incident logs created.
Due to the number of separate incident logs it would be necessary to individually audit, even to produce one year’s worth of data, this task cannot be completed within the 18 hour ‘Appropriate Limit’ (as defined in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004). As a result, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies and regrettably this task cannot be undertaken at this stage. This letter serves to act as a refusal notice for this request, as per S.17 (5) of the Act.
I have been advised, however, that you may be able to obtain some statistics relevant to your enquiry by contacting the Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board. Please see their website at http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/web/view.asp?siteid=3829&pageid=20739&e=e for more information.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request an internal review of our decision, you should write to the Data Protection and Information Officer, Corporate Support and Information Services – Information Compliance & Disclosure Section, Police Headquarters, Saunders Lane, Hutton, Preston PR4 5SB or alternatively send an email to . Details of the Constabulary’s Freedom of Information Complaint Procedures can be found attached to this email.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner’s Office cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by Lancashire Constabulary. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Bryony Hopkinson
Freedom of Information Disclosure Officer
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