Occupational Health (1134A/21)
Request
I was looking to find out the number of officers and staff who have been referred to occupational health in the past five years (broken into years), those of which were referred for mental health reasons as well as the number of officers and staff who have utilised mental health support offered by WMP (BWell etc). I’m trying to find out the impact that mental health issues has on our team members for a proposal to the innovation portal. Would it also be possible to have the total number of officers and staff employed over the past five years too?
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
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). 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
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). There is some data missing for 2018/2019, when our medical system changed, it would exceed the FOI time limit to locate and retrieve this information.
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.