Staff Sickness And Restricted Officers (289A/21)
Request
- Over the last 5 years (2016-2020) how many police officers have been off from work on the sick, for 7 days or less? (Please can the data be broken down for each year separately).
- Over the last 5 years (2016-2020) how many police officers have been off from work on the sick, for up to 28 days? (Please can the data be broken down for each year separately).
- Over the last 5 years (2016-2020) how many police officers have been off from work on the sick, for longer than 28 days? (Please can the data be broken down for each year separately).
- How many long term sick officers does your force currently have?
- How many officers are currently on restricted duties?
- Over the last 5 years (2016-2020) how many police staff have been off from work on the sick, for 7 days or less? (Please can the data be broken down for each year separately).
- Over the last 5 years (2016-2020) how many police staff have been off from work on the sick, for up to 28 days? (Please can the data be broken down for each year separately).
- Over the last 5 years (2016-2020) how many police staff have been off from work on the sick, for longer than 28 days? (Please can the data be broken down for each year separately).
- How many long term sick police staff does your force currently have?
Response
Q4 & Q5 – I can confirm that this information is held by West Midlands Police. However, I am withholding that information since it is exempt by virtue of Section 31(1)(a) (Law enforcement).
This exemption and explanatory notes are shown here:
In line with the above, I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public Interest Test (PIT) on disclosure. Please find this PIT attached (289A_21_PIT.pdf).
Although I am unable to release the specific information that you are requesting. In order to assist in providing you with data which may be of use to you for question 5, I can advise that historical data (as at 31 March 2020) with regard to officers on restricted duties is available on the .GOV.UK website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2020
Q1, Q2, Q3, Q6, Q7, Q8 & Q9 – Please find attached (289A_21_attachment.pdf).
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.