Covid Breaches (1492A/21)
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request a list of all fines handed out by police for breaches of Covid regulations between March 23, 2020, and July 19, 2021.
For each case, could the following information be included:
a) Date of breach
b) Location of breach by local police unit/ neighbourhood policing team area
c) brief description of the breach
d) Outcome, including value of fine where relevant
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). Due to the volume of fines, we are unable to provide any further details in relation to questions a, b, c and d, without conducting a manual search which 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.