Request for information in relation to Farewell functions
Reference: 22031
Date Added: Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Category:
Disclosure Details
Thank you for your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent (OPCC).
Two duties are placed on public authorities under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Notwithstanding applicable exemptions, 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, Section1 (1) (b), is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. The information that you are seeking is in relation to the following:
REQUEST
As regards two farewell functions, for an outgoing CC, during which time certain officers were dismissed for inappropriate behaviour.
- Were you present at either of the functions, evening, lunchtime?
Further details of the event are only available as part of the disciplinary process.
As the legally qualified chair made the decision to hold this hearing in private these details are not subject to disclosure.
- Where were they held?
Section 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means
The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 21 of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.
I am engaging the Section 21 Exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means.
The information you have requested can be found in the public domain at the attached link below Gwent Police officers may face sex attack charges | South Wales Argus.
Further details of the event are only available as part of the disciplinary process. As the legally qualified chair made the decision to hold this hearing in private these details are not subject to disclosure.
- Was police transport used for the carriage of personnel at any time?
Further details of the event are only available as part of the disciplinary process.
As the legally qualified chair made the decision to hold this hearing in private these details are not subject to disclosure.
- Was alcohol available and consumed on police premises at any time?
Further details of the event are only available as part of the disciplinary process.
As the legally qualified chair made the decision to hold this hearing in private these details are not subject to disclosure.
- If you attended the event, did you witness any misconduct, and when did you become aware of the incident?, and what action was taken.
Further details of the event are only available as part of the disciplinary process.
As the legally qualified chair made the decision to hold this hearing in private these details are not subject to disclosure.
Response to questions 1,3,4 & 5
The OPCC is not obliged to provide information contained in a court record by virtue of Section 32(1) of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 32 exempts information contained in certain litigation documents and court, tribunal and inquiry records and will apply regardless of the content of the information.
In this case, the information you are seeking is contained in the court records because it was ‘filed with or placed in the custody of a court for the purposes of proceedings’ (section 32 (a) of the Act). This provision of the Act therefore places a responsibility on HMCTS to ensure non-disclosure.
The terms of this exemption in the Freedom of Information Act mean that we do not have to consider whether or not it would be in the public interest for you to have the information.
It may help if I explain that there are separate and specific information access regimes for disclosing court and tribunal records, the section 32 exemption ensures that those regimes are not superseded by the FOIA. Rules of court already provide a comprehensive code governing the disclosure of court records and documents served in the course of proceedings. The intention behind Section 32 is to ensure that the courts and tribunals can continue to control the disclosure of that information because it was not the intention that the FOI Act should provide indirect access to court records. The greater public interest was considered to lie in the preservation of the courts’ own procedures for considering disclosure and so court records were made exempt from the FOIA.
You can also find more information by reading the full text of the Act for the above exemption (available at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/32)
We have provided below additional information about Section 32 of the Freedom of Information Act. We have included some extracts from the legislation, as well as some of the guidance we use when applying it. We hope you find this information useful.
The legislation
Section 1: Right of Access to information held by public authorities
(1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled—
(a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and
(b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.
Section 32: Information held by virtue of being contained within court records
(1) Information held by a public authority is exempt information if it is held only by virtue of being contained in—
(a) any document filed with, or otherwise placed in the custody of, a court for the purposes of proceedings in a particular cause or matter,
(b) any document served upon, or by, a public authority for the purposes of proceedings in a particular cause or matter, or
(c) any document created by—
(i) a court, or
(ii) a member of the administrative staff of a court,
for the purposes of proceedings in a particular cause or matter.
(2) Information held by a public authority is exempt information if it is held only by virtue of being contained in—
(a) any document placed in the custody of a person conducting an inquiry or arbitration, for the purposes of the inquiry or arbitration, or
(b) any document created by a person conducting an inquiry or arbitration, for the purposes of the inquiry or arbitration.
Guidance
Section 32 exempts information contained in those litigation documents and court, tribunal and inquiry records to which it applies. It exempts information held by a public authority if it is held solely by virtue of its being contained in those categories of document.
The information must be included in a particular type of document and must be held by the public authority only by virtue of this. However, if the information is so held, it will be exempt regardless of its content and for the reasons set out below public authorities should refuse the request. This applies both to the document itself and to any copies of that document or copies of the information which it contains.
There are separate and specific regimes for access to information held by courts and tribunals, designed to give those bodies themselves a measure of control over that information. For example, Rule 5.4 of the Civil Procedure Rules deals with access to court documents in civil proceedings in the county courts, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. It allows any person, on payment of the prescribed fee, to inspect and take a copy of (a) a claim form which has been served, (b) a judgment or order given or made in public, and (c) any other document if the court gives permission. Where a person has the right to inspect a document without permission, a request can be made to the court staff. Where permission is required, an application must be made to a judge. The Civil Procedure Rules do not include any guidance on the court's exercise of its discretion, but the court will take account of all the circumstances of the case and the competing principles of open justice and the right to privacy of persons who may be mentioned in court documents.
Section 40(2) Personal Information
The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 40(2) Personal Information, of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.
The OPCC is withholding the information you have requested on the basis that the exemption contained in s 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act applies in that the information you have requested is personal data of third parties and the disclosure of the data would breach one of the principles contained in the Data Protection Act. The relevant principle is the first principle which states that:
Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and shall not be processed unless –
(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met and
(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is met
It is only necessary to consider (a) in respect of the information requested. The relevant condition in Schedule 2 is condition 6 which states that:
"The processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the data controller or by the third party or parties to whom the data are disclosed, except where the processing is unwarranted in any particular case by reason of prejudice to the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of the data subject"
The Freedom of Information Act is a public disclosure regime, not a private regime. Any information disclosed under the Act is thereafter deemed to be in the public domain, and therefore freely available to the general public and will be published on the OPCC website.
You have the right to appeal our decision if you think it is incorrect. Should you feel dissatisfied with this response or the way in which your request was handled, information on the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent FOI Appeals Procedure can be found on our website. Your appeal must be submitted within 40 working days.
If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Commissioner is an independent regulator whose details can be found using the following link https://ico.org.uk/
You can also write to the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF