Whistleblowers (485A/21)
Request
- How many reports did you receive from whistleblowers in 2019 and in 2020?
- How many people do you have in your organisation that are trained/permitted to take reports from whistleblowers?
- What training have the people in question number 2 received in whistleblowing?
- What cost, if any, was there for this training?
- Which organisation delivered each course?
- What is the name of the person that arranged this training and what is their email address?
- What methods do you have for whistleblowers to contact a person that is authorised to take their report and what are the specific details of these, i.e., email addresses, telephone numbers etc?
- What are the email addresses for the people authorised to receive whistleblower reports?
- How many whistleblowers have left the organisation within 12 months of making a report?
- How many whistleblowers have made an allegation of ‘detriment’ against your organisation?
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. All line managers are able to receive reports from whistleblowers, therefore this information is not centrally collated.
This means that 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 confirming or denying that the information is held would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(2) 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.
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 for questions 2, 3, 4, 5, & 7 as this was retrieved during our initial research. Please see attached document.
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here:
This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.