CHIS payments (994A/23)
Request
Please could you provide me with the following:
1.How much money, in pounds sterling, has the force paid police informants – known as Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) – in the past three financial years? (Please could the figures be broken down year-by-year and be provided for 2022/23, 2021/22, 2020/21).
For each financial year please could the total amount paid to Covert Human Intelligence Sources be stated, as well as the number of Covert Human Intelligence Sources who received payment.
2.What was the largest amount paid to an informant/ Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) by the force in each year? Please provide the amount of the largest payment to an informant each financial year.
Please note, the amount should include the total of all payments to the informant in one financial year – for example, if the same informant received several payments in the financial year, please could the total amount for those payments be provided.
Response
Please see attached. Some information is exempt by virtue of
Section 30(2) Confidential Sources
Section 38(1) Health and Safety
Section 40(2) Personal Data
In line with the above, I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public Interest Test (PIT) on disclosure. Please find this PIT attached (PIT_1)
Section 40(2) allows for personal data to be withheld where release would breach the third party’s data protection rights. It would be unfair to release this information where any person could be identified from the data and in this case the right to privacy outweighs any public interest in release
In addition to the attached response West Midlands Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds any other information relevant to this request as the duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 23(3) – Information supplied by, or concerning, certain Security Bodies
Section 24(2) – National security
Section 30(3) Investigations by virtue of s30(2) Confidential Sources
Section 23 is a class based absolute exemption and there is no requirement to consider the public interest. Confirming or denying the existence of whether any information is held would contravene the constrictions laid out within Section 23 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in that this stipulates a generic bar on disclosure of any information applied by, or concerning, certain Security Bodies.
Section 24 is a prejudiced based qualified exemption and there is a requirement to evidence the prejudice (harm) in disclosure and consider the public interest to ensure neither confirming or denying that information is held is appropriate. Please see attached (PIT_2)
Section 30 is a class based qualified exemption and there is a requirement to consider the public interest to ensure neither confirming or denying information is held is appropriate. Please see attached (PIT_2)
This exemption and explanatory notes are shown here:
No inference can be taken from this refusal that any further information relevant to your request does or does not exist.