Coronavirus – Gatherings (375A/20)
Request
1) The number of reports to your force of gatherings of over 10 people between 23rd of March and 10th of May 2020.
2) The largest number of people at a gathering during this time.
3) The number of reports of gatherings of over 100 people during this time.
Response
Please be advised that the information that you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. In relation to gatherings information is recorded on a person by person basis, not as a collective.
If an officer attends a gathering to break this up, each person within that gathering would be issued with an individual FPN for breaching the regulations if they refuse to return home.
Therefore the cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit then S12 of the Act applies to the whole request
However, In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide information in relation to individual FPN’s issued can be found here
https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-chiefs-welcome-positive-start-to-recruitment-drive .
This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here:
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