S60 Authorisations (1467A/21)
Request
Section 60 authorisations
I write pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’) to request some information.
This request relates to the framework within which your officers make the decision of whether to make an authorisation under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (‘section 60’).
Please confirm whether your police force has a policy and/or guidance relating to authorisations made under section 60, including factors which ought to be taken into account by authorising officers. If so, please provide copies of any and all such policies and guidance that are currently in use or have been in use in the last 10 years.
Please confirm how your police force complies with its Public Sector Equality Duty (‘PSED’) under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 in relation to each decision to make a section 60 authorisation. If a standard document or procedure is used to record the way in which the PSED is satisfied in the authorisation process, please provide copies of any and all such documents and procedures.
Please confirm whether your police force provides training to officers responsible for making section 60 authorisations in respect of that power. If so, please provide details of any and all such training, including training documents and materials provided to officers or used during training sessions. Please also confirm the duration and frequency of such training sessions.
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). To provide any and all such policies and guidance that are currently in use or have been over the last 10 years would exceed the FOI time limit.
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.