Compensation Payouts (1281A/22)
Request
Please can you provide the following information under the Freedom of Information Act.
Please tell me:
- How many compensation payouts were made to a) police officers and b) civilian staff in each of the previous financial years a) 2017/18 b) 2018/19 c) 2019/20 d) 2020/21 e) 2021/22 for accident at work claims
- For each of the above financial years, please provide a total figure for the cost of these payouts.
- Please provide a breakdown for each payout, giving a brief summary of the accident, how much money was paid in compensation and in the case of police officers, what the rank of the officer was.
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).
In relation to question 3 in order to split this data into individual claim circumstances etc, this would involve having to physically track and review every individual claim and so 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.