Section 136 Mental Health Act (908A/21)
Request
- I am looking for data relating to the Street Triage model used in WM, statistics on how many cases the Street Triage model has responded too, and outcomes of the case.
- I am also looking for the number of people given a Section 136 for the years 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020 and 2021.
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide all of this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
However, although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see attached file 908A_21_attachment.pdf). I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.
REASON FOR DECISION
Information with regard to question 1 (cases responded to and outcomes) is not centrally collated. Therefore in order to determine this information, we would need to conduct a manual trawl of records. Such a search however would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
This means that the cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here: