Question

What road victims support services do you offer?

Who provides your road victims support services?

Who is eligible for road victim support?

What number/percentage of road victims receive road victims support?

What number/percentage of road victims do not take up an offer of road victims support?

Answer

What road victims support services do you offer?

In Northamptonshire, Voice Roadharm helps people who have been affected by any kind of road incident. It gives specialist support and advice to those who have been bereaved, injured or witnessed a road collision. This includes supporting friends and family of those who have either been killed or injured on the roads. A team of professional and trained counsellors and support workers give support that is tailored to individual needs. Help is available from right after any incident, through to when victims feel you are able to cope on their own.

Voice Roadharm support includes:

• emotional support;
• professional therapy and treatment;
• support through any court case and updates on legal proceedings;
• emotional and practical support during an inquest; and
• signposting to other support agencies such as specialist charities and support organisations.

Who provides your road victims support services?

The Office of Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner assumed the statutory responsibilities for commissioning support for Victims and Witnesses of Crime in October 2014. Voice has been the brand for victim and witness services in Northamptonshire since 2014 and the services were delivered under a series of contracts; the first two with Victim Support and Restorative Solutions ended in 2017.  In January 2017, the decision was taken to not seek a new contract for the provision of services but instead to create a wholly owned company, Voice for Victims and Witnesses Ltd, to provide services to victims and witnesses.

Details of Voice for Victims and Witnesses Ltd can be found on their website at:

https://www.voicenorthants.org/

Who is eligible for road victim support?

See above

What number/percentage of road victims receive road victims support?

“The Office of the Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC) and Voice for Victims and Witnesses Ltd are two separate legal entities. Information related to specific data regarding the services they provide is not held by the OPFCC.  You can contact Voice for Victims and Witnesses Ltd directly: info@voicenorthants.org / https://www.voicenorthants.org/contact/ who may hold the information you are requesting.

What number/percentage of road victims do not take up an offer of road victims support?

See above

Question

Please provide the following 4 pieces information in a monthly table starting from when the OPFCC took on the role of initially recording and dealing with members of the public making a complaint against the police which; also includes an expression of dissatisfaction.

1. Type of complaint

2. A summary of the complaint (more detail is required as to the circumstances of the allegation rather than using the generic terms presently used that do not specify the circumstances of the complaint, in some complaints the term “other” has been used which does not provide information as to the type or circumstances of the complaint.

Other generic terms used in the previous spreadsheet which do not describe the circumstances of the complaint  include:

Decisions

General level of service

Use of police vehicles

Impolite and intolerant actions

Disclosure of information

Searches of premises and seizure of property Other policies and procedures Unprofessional attitude and disrespect Police action following contact Information Race Sex Impolite language/tone Handling of or damage to property/ premises Out of court disposals Lack of fairness and impartiality

3. Which complaints were resolved by the OPFCC customer service team

4. Which complaints were forwarded to the Northamptonshire Police Professional Standards Department

Answer

I can confirm that the OPFCC holds the information that you have requested.  However, the cost of your request exceeds the limits for time and cost set out in 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. On this occasion we will not be taking your request in respect to complaints data any further.

In this email I will explain why that is and provide further advice as to how you could refine your request so that we may be able to answer it.

The information you are requesting is not held by the Office of the Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner in any reasonably retrievable form. The only means of establishing information of the nature you are requesting would be by way of manual examination each complaint received by the OPFCC’s Customer Service Team.

It is my assessment that the cost of providing you with the information requested would exceed the ‘appropriate level’ as set out in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. To answer the request in full would require the Customer Service Team to examine each individual complaint received to provide a summary, as well as the other information requested.

Since February 2020, the Customer Service Team have received 1825 complaints and it is my assessment is that it would take around 5 mins to review each complaint to ascertain the summary of the complaint and to ensure it is anonymised in such a way that it was suitable for public release. This would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ which currently stands at £450 for ‘prescribed costs’ which is calculated at the flat rate of £25 per person, per hour.

We might be able to answer a refined request if it was within the costs limit. You may wish to consider, for example, further limiting the time frame of your request or the breadth of your request. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within the FOIA cost limit. There is more information and guidance about the section 12 exemption for your information set below.

In view of the above, and in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please take this letter as a Refusal Notice.

Additional Information about Section 12 FOIA

We have provided below additional information about Section 12 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.

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 12: Cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit (1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. (2) Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate limit. (3) In subsections (1) and (2) “the appropriate limit” means such amount as may be prescribed, and different amounts may be prescribed in relation to different cases. (4) The Secretary of State may by regulations provide that, in such circumstances as may be prescribed, where two or more requests for information are made to a public authority— (a) by one person, or (b) by different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign, the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them. (5) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for the purposes of this section as to the costs to be estimated and as to the manner in which they are to be estimated.

Guidance

The appropriate limit

The ‘appropriate limit’, for the purposes of section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act has been set at:

• £600 for central government and Parliament.
• The hourly rate is set at £25 per person per hour.

The following activities may be taken into account when public authorities are estimating whether the appropriate limit has been exceeded.

• determining whether it holds the information requested
• locating the information or documents containing the information
• retrieving such information or documents
• extracting the information from the document containing it.

Question

1. Who is responsible for dealing with reviews concerning complaints against police. Please provide the name/position of the  responsible person(s).

2. What experience/training have those received tasked with dealing with reviews so that they are able to assess what is reasonable and proportionate in an investigation into complaints of police misconduct which may also include criminal allegations.

Answer

1. Who is responsible for dealing with reviews concerning complaints against police. Please provide the name/position of the responsible person(s).

Details of who is responsible for dealing with reviews concerning complaints against police can be found on our website at:

https://archive.northantspfcc.org.uk/scheme-of-delegation-relating-to-complaints/

2. What experience/training have those received tasked with dealing with reviews so that they are able to assess what is reasonable and proportionate in an investigation into complaints of police misconduct which may also include criminal allegations.

The Director responsible for the OPFCC Customer Service team is a former Chief Superintendent who had over thirty years of experience serving with Northamptonshire Police. In addition to this, the manager of the Customer Service team led a project team who worked with the force from August 2017 to plan the implementation of the new OPFCC police complaints process which was introduced on the 1^st of February 2020.  All members of the OPFCC Customer Service team undertake the PSD Investigators Course which is run by Sancus Solutions.

Question

Please provide the following information for the last 3 years taken from the date of this request:

1. The number of complaints made against  members of staff of the OPFCC

2. Circumstances of the complaint

3. Outcome of each complaint

Answer

1. The number of complaints made against members of staff of the OPFCC – 22

2. Circumstances of the complaint – See table below.

3. Outcome of each complaint – See table below.

Question

1.How much was your communications budget in the financial year 2021/22?

2.How much was the actual spend in that year?

3.What is your communications budget for the financial year 2022/23?

4.How many communications professionals do you employ and what is the total annual combined cost of those salaries?

5.How many media professionals do you employ that specifically handle external communications and what is the annual cost of those salaries?

6.Have you used any external communications professionals within your organisation? What was the cost of this?

7. Which job role is responsible for the communications department and what is the salary currently provided to the person carrying out this role. (Please clarify whether this salary is included in the answers given for Q4 and Q5).

Answer

How much was your communications budget in the financial year 2021/22?

The Communications Team is a Joint Team between the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) and Fire and the PFCC incurs the team costs and charges Fire for these costs. The budget includes all joint staff (all of whom are employed by the PFCC) and associated communications costs. The 2021/22 budget for the PFCC after charging Fire was £166K. There is also a budget of £3,600 for the website.

How much was the actual spend in that year?

The 2021/22 spend for the PFCC after charging Fire was £112K. There is also a budget of £3,600 for the website.

What is your communications budget for the financial year 2022/23?

The 2022/23 budget for the PFCC after charging Fire is £118K. The website budget is £3,600

How many communications professionals do you employ and what is the total annual combined cost of those salaries?

All communication staff are employed by the PFCC in a Joint team for PFCC and Fire. There are five staff and all staff support Fire and the PFCC. For 22/23 the Fire charge is 50% of the Joint Head of OPFCC and Fire Communications and 75% of all other staff. For 22/23 Total costs (pay, NI and superannuation) for the five posts is £228K of which Fire pay £155K and PFCC £73K.

How many media professionals do you employ that specifically handle external communications and what is the annual cost of those salaries?

All five comms team members support external communications as part of their roles. Total cost of the roles are above.

Question

Thankyou for the leaflet explaining how my precept is spent on the local Police and Fire services.

I would like more clarification on the largest sector of each pie, “Police Officers, Staff and PCSOs” and “Firefighters and Staff”.

Would you be able to break it down further, perhaps with categories like “Salaries”, “Pension Contributions”, and “Pension Payments for Retired Officers / Staff”? There may be other significant categories too.

Answer

In the Council Tax leaflet and Panel report, the PFCC uses the information provided by the Chief Constable to explain where the budget consented to the Chief Constable is intended to be spent and the PFCC will seek monitoring information from the Chief Constable in that regard.

It is important to understand that The Office of the Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC) and Northamptonshire Police are two separate legal entities. Information regarding operational policing matters is the responsibility of Northamptonshire Police, therefore the OPFCC does not hold some of the information you have requested. Northamptonshire Police’s Information Unit may hold some of the information you are seeking. If you have not already done so, then you may wish to write to their Freedom of Information and Data Protection Team, Information Unit, Force Headquarters, Wootton Hall, Northampton, NN4 0JQ / freedomofinformation@northants.pnn.police.uk

In relation to the Fire & Rescue Service, The following breakdown was included in the precept report published in February 2022:

In respect of the specific query about pension payments – fire and staff – such payments are not made from the revenue budget – employer pension contributions are.

In respect of Fire, pension payments made are set out in the Firefighters Pension Account which is funded by employers contributions and Home Office grants and can be seen on page 49 of the  Statement of Accounts for 2020/21. The audited accounts (the last set produced as the next accounts are due to be published as draft by 31/7/22) are on the PFCC website:

https://archive.northantspfcc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/For-Publication-FINAL-Northamptonshire-Fire-Accounts-2020-21.pdf

Staff Pensions Payments are made from the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), which is administered by West Northamptonshire.