Request re: Costs – Press Office/Media Services 2010/11 etc
Response:
1) How much did your force spend on press office/media services in 2010/2011?
Lothian and Borders spent approximately £61,840 in 2010/2011 (this does not include staff costs). Please note, given the proximity of your request to the end of the financial year, this figure has not yet been audited.
2) How much does the force plan to spend on press office/media services in 2011/2012? Will there be redundancies in this department?
The proposed budget for 2011/2012 is the same as last year. However, you should note that the whole force is actively pursuing a programme of efficiency savings and therefore it is likely that the actual spend will prove to be less than the allocated budget.
In terms of redundancies, Lothian and Borders Police is making every effort to avoid compulsory redundancies. The force has, however, recently advertised a voluntary redundancy scheme and three members of staff in this department have chosen to leave the force under the scheme.
3) Can you give me figures for the number of Freedom of Information requests your force has received in the last five years
I have listed the total number of Freedom of Information requests received by Lothian and Borders Police. We also record the number of questions and subjects that these requests relate to (as this often gives a clearer picture of the extent of our FOI enquiries) and I have also included this for your information:
2006 - 740 requests: comprising of 2185 questions, regarding 808 subjects.
2007 - 643 requests: comprising 2560 questions, regarding 652 subjects.
2008 - 771 requests: comprising 3713 questions, regarding 805 subjects.
2009 - 865 requests: comprising 2850 questions, regarding 895 subjects.
2010 - 866 requests: comprising 2596 questions, regarding 849 subjects.
4) Can you give me the figures for the budget of the department which handles Freedom of Information requests for the last five years ? (e.g. 2005/2006 - £120,000; 2006/2007 - £140,000 etc).
5) How much does your force plan to spend on the department which handles Freedom of Information requests in 2011/2012? Will there be redundancies in this department ?
I am afraid this is not something that I can provide. To explain, Lothian and Borders Police does not have a department which is solely responsible for handling Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. The Force Information Unit co-ordinates and collates answers to FOI enquiries however this unit also has a number of functions, these include processing Data Protection enquiries, vehicle abstract requests, CICA claims, and audit and records management. Freedom of Information is just one part of what we do and to provide you with the budget of the department as a whole would not be reflective of the 'true' cost of FOI to the force (which is what I gather from your questions you would like to receive).
If it is of assistance to you however, we have, in the past, calculated an approximate cost of FOI to the force by estimating that each request takes, on average, an hour to complete and multiplying that by the average hourly rate of £12 (which is in the middle of the salary scale for a Force Information Assistant). Whilst not ideal, we feel that an hour reflects a balance between those requests (the majority) that can be responded to quickly, with all analysis completed by members of this Unit, and those that prove to be more time-consuming i.e. those that require information to be collated from other departments and/or those that require attention from senior staff.
In terms of redundancies for this department, one member of staff has chosen to leave the force under the voluntary redundancy scheme.
Request re: Custody Forms
Response:
Please find attached a copy of all the forms that may be completed when a person is brought into custody. You might like to note that some of these are completed in duplicate and I have noted these below:
Arrest – Rights of Accused (duplicate)
Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 Statement to be completed by officer detaining suspect under section 14 (duplicate)
Detainee not under 16 years of age (Adult) (triplicate)
Detainee under 16 years of age (Child) (triplicate)
In addition, we also record all custodies on our custody recording system. I have attached a copy of the information contained within that system, for clarification, these examples have been taken from our training database which contains fictional data, the personal details do not relate to a real person.
In relation to your request for the number of CID officers, the below table indicates the number of these officers within each division:
HR SYSTEM - POLICE MONTHLY STRENGTH REPORT AS AT 31.03.11DIVISION / Chief Supt. / Supt. / Chief Insp. / Insp. / Sgt. / PC / TOTAL
CID A / 4 / 6 / 31 / 105 / 146
CID E / 1 / 3 / 6 / 21 / 31
CID F / 1 / 2 / 8 / 28 / 39
CID G / 1 / 2 / 4 / 14 / 21
CID O / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2 / 2
CID X / 1 / 4 / 4 / 13 / 31 / 114 / 167
Second. / 0 / 1 / 2 / 4 / 14 / 34 / 55
TOTAL FORCE / 1 / 5 / 13 / 30 / 94 / 318 / 461
Finally, below is a list of the senior police officers within G division. You are quite right, as has previously been discussed, that the names and roles of senior staff is generally considered reasonable to release under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 however I note that you would expect this to equate to all Sergeants and above. I am afraid that the rank of Sergeant would not, necessarily, be considered sufficiently senior to require the release of personal information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 unless, of course, that person’s role meant that they already had a public profile and that their contact details were already widely known. I therefore consider this part of your request to be exempt under section 38 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (although I would also, again, remind you of the information published on our website about our Community Officers). In making our assessment of which ranks/posts are suitable for release we have, in the past, only automatically provided personal details of Superintendents and above as it is considered that they do occupy a role of sufficient rank, and pay grade, for it to be reasonable for their names to be known. That said, given the particular structure of G division, and your wish to receive details of officers who occupy leadership roles, I have, in this case, included the names of all officers are members of the Command Team and the Commanders of each of the Community Policing Areas (CPA) within the division:
Divisional Commander – Ch Supt Graham Sinclair
Deputy Commander – Supt Murdo MacIver
Head of CID – Detective Chief Inspector Linda Ormiston
Operation Support – Chief Inspector Dougie Forsyth
Safer Communities Manager – T/Chief Inspector Kenneth Simpson
North Community Policing Area (CPA) Commander – Inspector Michael Wynne
South CPA Commander – Inspector Paula Clark
East CPA Commander – Inspector Andrew Clark
[see attachment]
request re: VISOR
response:
VISOR (Violent and Sex Offenders Register) is an information management database used by all UK police forces and their partner agencies. Within Scotland, under the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2005 and in general terms, only registered sex offenders come under the umbrella of MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements). Consequently, in Scotland, the majority of nominals recorded on VISOR are registered sex offenders and this is the statistical focus of the system.
Unfortunately, it has not been possible to answer all of your questions as some of the information is not held (section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002: information not held therefore applies); for example, VISOR can only provide a ‘snapshot’ of statistics taken at a given time and it is not possible to go back and report on all the detail you have asked for on a historical basis. In order to be of some assistance, however, we have, where possible, provided you with a ‘snapshot’ of information from 1st May 2011.
You should also note that the statistics below include offenders who are currently in custody, serving a term of imprisonment, and those who are at liberty in the community.
1. How many individuals were on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2011?
On this date 760 live nominals were recorded on VISOR.
2. How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2011, had convictions?
As explained above, I am afraid that VISOR can only provide a ‘snap shot’ of statistics taken at any given time and we are unable to break them down further on a historical basis. However, on 1 May 2011, 2 nominals were recorded on VISOR who did not have a previous conviction(s) (i.e. 758 individuals did have convictions).
3. How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2011, had convictions for violence?
We have presumed that you wish to identify the number of individuals who have a conviction for violence but not a sexual conviction, rather than the number of individuals who have a conviction for both violent and sexual offences. On 1 May 2011, 3 nominals were recorded on VISOR who had convictions for violence but no sexual convictions.
4. How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2011, had convictions for sex offences?
On 1 May 2011, 755 nominals were recorded on VISOR who had sexual convictions.
5. How many individuals were on your ViSOR database as of December 31, 2010?
On this date 759 individuals were recorded on VISOR.
6. How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of December 31, 2010, had convictions?
This information is not held (see above): section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 applies.
7. How many individuals were on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2010?
On this date 758 individuals were recorded on VISOR.
8.How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2010, had convictions?
9. How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2010, had convictions for violence?
10. How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2010, had convictions for sex offences?
This information is not held (see above): section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 applies.
11. How many individuals were on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2009?
On this date 707 individuals were recorded on VISOR.
12. How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2009, had convictions?
13 How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2009, had convictions for violence?
14. How manyof the individuals named on your ViSOR database as of March 31, 2009, had convictions for sex offences?
This information is not held (see above): section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 applies.
For your information, monthly statistics relating to Registered Sex Offenders in the force area are published on our website at: www.lbp.police.uk/freedom-of-information/pl_rsomanage.asp, this data also includes historical statistics.
Request re: Racist incidents
Response:
Unfortunately, I am unable to provide you with the details that you require. The informationprovided to the Scottish Government that is broken down to local authority levelrelates to racial incidents only. The ScottishGovernment bulletinexplains that:
In an incident, one or more victims may be involved, and there may be one or more perpetrators. There may be no criminal element, or several crimes or offences may occur. For example, a house may be broken into and vandalised and the occupants assaulted - i.e. three offences in total and all of the offences are counted.
The more detailed information held by Lothian Borders Police at ward level relates to racist crime and as such is not comparable with the Scottish Government data.Tore do the analysis to a breakdown of each incident at ward level would require a manual search of each incident in order to list the exact location, this exercise would put the cost of retrieving the information considerably over the limits laid down in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act and as such is exempt under section 12: "Excessive Cost".
However it would be possible to supply you with racist crimes broken down by beat level. These would obviously differ from the Scottish Government statistics, as they are based on incidents, however I would be happy to provide you with this data if you would find it helpful. Do please let me know if you would.
Request re: Rural crime
Response:
I will answer each of your questions in turn.
Q1. How many sheep have been stolen from October 1 to March 31 2010/11 and from October 1 to March 31 2009/10.
No sheep were reported stolen between Oct 2010 and March 2011. Only one sheep was stolen between Oct 2009 and March 2010.
Q2. How many other forms of livestock have been stolen during the periods mentioned above.
After searching our crime reporting system by inputting the following criteria into the stolen property field, Cattle, Horse, Pig and Other, I can confirm that there were no crime reports created as a result of any of the aforementioned animals have been reported stolen.
Q3. How many tractors have been stolen during the periods mentioned above.
As above, a search was carried out on our crime recording system by selecting the term ‘agricultural vehicle’ within the stolen property field; and I can confirm that one tractor was reported stolen between Oct 2010 and March 2011 and one stolen between Oct 2009 and March 2010.