FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST DJ 133-15 – RESPONSE

REQUEST

/

RESPONSE

/ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
I would like the annual numbers of reported traffic accidents, together with information regarding the type of parties involved (i.e. car, cyclist, pedestrian, etc.) and outcome (no injuries, injury or fatality), in Liverpool for the years 2011-to date, broken down into individual wards.
Please note that I specifically do NOT require nor request any personal details of those involved.
You have previously supplied such information up to 2010 under the following successful FOI request here
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/road
_traffic_accidents_liverpool#incoming-143455
and this request is for updated figures in the form previously supplied / Merseyside Police do not record traffic collision data at Local Authority Ward level. The response referred to in the application, did not supply data in that format. The same format as previously used has been adopted and the data shows the relevant Police Neighbourhood identifier. Liverpool City Council is regularly supplied with collision data and may be able to produce the statistics in Ward totals.
There are many Internet locations dealing with road traffic collision data and local authority data which may be of assistance.
Please see the separate tables produced as Excel work books for the years 2011 to 2014.
Exempt Information section 22, Freedom of Information. Information held for future publication.
Where information is held for future publication, it is not appropriate to publish the data ahead of the normal publication / Collision data is supplied to Local and Central Government is based on information record on form STAS19. STAS 20 Is the official instructions on completion of STATS 19.
Collision data is published nationally and locally by some Authorities but under goes manipulation to protect personal identity before publication. Ages are normally banded and gender is not normally shown. Please see the Department for Transport web pages and also the National Statistic web pages.
A list of some of the relevant Internet sites can be found at the link below this table.
The below Internet link is to an academic site which has published collision data from 1979.
http://www.adls.ac.uk/department-for-transport/stats19-road-accident-dataset/?detail
The internet site ‘Crash Map’ allows collision mapping and the link is in the below listing.
Please note that Merseyside Police do not generally record any road traffic collision, which does not involve injury and the completion of STAT 19.

List of Internet site relating to collision information.

https://www.google.com/search?q=english+local+government+collision+data&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-gb&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&safe=active&gfe_rd=cr&gws_rd=ssl&oq=&gs_l

PUBLIC INTEREST TEST PROCESS
EXEMPTION / FAVOURING DISCLOSURE / FAVOURING NON-DISCLOSURE
Section 22 (Information held for future publication) / Disclosure of information would assist the public in understanding the level of injury road traffic collisions which had occurred in the Local Authority area.
The data recorded by the Force would also show whether the roll out of 20 mph schemes within the Local Authority area had resulted in a change to the number of injury collisions or severity of injury. / For many years central government have considered transparency in relation to statistical disclosure relating to police activity to be important. Consequently central government have published statistical data from all Forces in one location showing not only Force level data but national trends. The data is only published once it is known to be complete and has been subject of audit to ensure accuracy. Considerable time is taken in ensuring that the data is fit for publication. Where data is published on a regular basis, there is a degree of certainty in being able to use previous year data in a comparative manner. Individually produced data, produced for a FOI application will meet the statutory obligation, but must be considered to be data that is held at the time of application. No audit is made to ensure accuracy or completeness. It is not in the public interest to divert police resources to locate information which will be prepared for publication in the normal course of events and does not assist the public if inaccurate and under reported data is disclosed, particularly when that data then remains in a publicly accessible location where members of the public may use such data, rather than verified data in future years.
Decision: / When balancing the public interest it is necessary to consider the release of the requested information into the public domain. The public interest is not what interests the public, but what would be of tangible benefit to the public as a whole.
The current application whilst not from a media source will result in the response data being published on a FOI disclosure log, which is referred to in the application. Data for 2015 is only partially held and may change as injuries could be reclassified in relation to that data which is held. It is not therefore appropriate to use limited police resources to obtain provisional data which could be misleading and inaccurate data. The data will be used in dissemination to the public as it will be retained in the FOI disclosure log, thus perpetuating the inappropriateness of any data which may change from the time the data was produced.
The decision therefore is that the information exempt in this case (2015 data), will not be disclosed, but that the data for the previous years 2011 to 2014 will be disclosed but on the understanding that it is from base sources and has not be subject to any audit and may therefore vary slightly from the published data.

DJAN 04/2015 Page 2 of 2