FOI 782-2023 / Aug 2023 / Warwickshire hunt
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 782-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 21st August 2023 as follows:
Q1. Who was the Officer that got the Community Protection Notice against Warwickshire Hunt "pulled" from going to Court?
Q2. How many hours were spent by officers collecting the evidence to go to Court, and how much did that cost. (Happy with rounded estimated hours and costs)
Q3. Why was the decision made to "pull" the court case?
Q4. Did the Police Commissioner, Philip Seccombe, have any involvement?
Q5. What is the protocol that has been agreed with Warwickshire Hunt that replaced the CPN?
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Q1 response: No specific information held; however, I can advise that the Protocol was signed off at Chief Officer level.
Q2 response: Please be advised that all time spent in the drawing up, and agreement of, the Protocol, was undertaken as part of normal duties and therefore no specific cost code would be assigned. As such, our response to your request is ‘no information held’.
Q3 response: This information is available within the public domain via a statement issued by Warwickshire Police and is therefore exempt from disclosure by virtue of Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act – ‘Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means’. Please see the link below:
Q4 response: Please be advised that the OPCC and Warwickshire Police are separate entities and questions relating to the Police and Crime Commissioner should be referred to the OPCC at the below email address:
Q5 response: Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
When refusing to provide such information, because the information is exempt, Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Warwickshire Police to provide you, the applicant with a notice which:
(a) States that fact
(b) Specifies the exemption(s) in question and
(c) States (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption(s) applies.
I can confirm that Warwickshire Police do hold the requested information; however, it is being withheld from disclosure by virtue of the following exemption:
Section 32 – Court records
Specifically, Section 32(1)(b) - Information held by a public authority is exempt information if it is held only by virtue of being contained in any document served upon, or by, a public authority for the purposes of proceedings in a particular cause or matter.
Section 32 is an absolute class-based exemption, therefore there is no requirement to provide evidence of harm or consider the public interest test.
In this case, the exemption is engaged as the details of the protocol exist only by virtue of being created to resolve litigation proceedings of which Warwickshire Police were a party.
This letter serves as a refusal notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act, in relation to this part of the request.
You can find out more about Section 32 from the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice website, including an extract from the Act and ICO guidance. Please find the link below:
Addressing road safety concerns linked to hunt activity | Warwickshire Police
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB